Chittisinghpura massacre: Sikhs in Jammu Kashmir offer 'Ardas' for 35 killed 21 years ago

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Twenty-one years after the massacre of innocent Sikh men of all age group, the people of Chittisinghpura in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory (J&KUT) gathered in a local Gurdwara on Sunday (March 21).

They held the gathering to remember and pay homage to the 35 people who were lined up before a wall and shot dead by masked men- a day before the arrival of the then US president Bill Clinton.

“How can I forget the fateful day of March 20, 2000, when armed militants dragged innocent Sikh men, young and children, out of their houses and indiscriminately sprayed bullets on them and next day on March 21 we carried out their mass cremation, “ said Nanak Singh, while talking to the media after the bhog ceremony of the Akhand Path which began on Saturday.

He was the only survivor of the incident and had lost his son, a brother and three cousins in the heart-wrenching incident.

Like Nanak Singh, Bobby Singh who had also lost his relatives in the Sikh’s carnage said “These wounds will never heal, though the government has given financial compensation and a job to a member of the deceased family but who attacked us and  why   is the big question.“

The Center has also set up a permanent CRPF camp in the Chittisinghpura after the incident. Still, there are as many as over 300 houses of Sikhs in the village.

None of the successive governments held an inquiry to reveal the truth to the world and most importantly to the victims, Nanak Singh said  

The then government had made a futile attempt to assuage our hurt feelings when a few days after the Chittishingpura massacre the government shot dead a few terrorists near the village claiming that they were responsible for the murder of Sikhs but eventually it proved to be a false claim.

A Sikh leader from Jammu Surinder Singh informed that the bhog of Akhand Path was also performed in Jammu in the memory of departed 35 souls. “Several delegations have met the state and Centre leadership to hold an inquiry but to no avail,” he said.

Surinder Singh, an advocate by profession, said that they had urged prime minister Narendra Modi to hold a fresh inquiry into the incident and let the truth come out. “Truth will always be the truth and only the truth about the incident can offer us solace,” he said.