Chittisinghpura massacre: 20 years on, wounds have healed but scars remain

As the country observes the 20th anniversary of the Chittisinghpura massacre in which 35 members of the Sikh community were gunned down in the Chittisinghpura village of the Anantnag district, for the community the wounds have healed but the scars remain.

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On the eve of the visit of the then President of the United States, Bill Clinton to India, terrorists had killed 35 members of the Sikh community by making them stand in two different queues outside side their homes in the village. The memories of what happened on the fateful night of March 20, 2000, are still afresh for those who survived the massacre.

Terrorists dressed in Army Uniform approached the village from two different locations, as the members of the community had just returned to their homes after celebrating Hola Mohallah in the local Gurudwaras, they ordered the male members to come out of their homes.

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“We were preparing for dinner, when these terrorists dressed in Army Uniform asked us to come out of the houses and stand in two different lines, we did that and they started firing indiscriminately on us,” one of the survivors of the attack had told media.

Though the identity of the terrorists who carried out the massacre has not been known so far, security agencies had pointed the fingers towards terrorists from the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist outfit.

Read: J&K: Police Arrest Lashkar-e-Taiba Terrorist From Baramulla

David Headley who was arrested in connection with the Mumbai terror attack of 2008 had reportedly informed the National Investigation agency that the massacre of the Sikhs in Chittisinghpura was carried out the LeT terrorists and one of the terrorists who was part of the group that carried out the attack was named as Muzzamil.

Those who lost their loved ones in one of the worst massacres in Jammu and Kashmir say that they are still waiting for the justice to be delivered, as they want that the perpetrators of the massacre should be identified and punished as per the law.

“Though security agencies maintain that the terrorists who carried out the massacre have been identified but we want them to be punished as per the law, March 20, 2000 onwards our life was changed forever”, one of the residents of Chittisinghpura said.

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