Chittisinghpura massacre

The Chittisinghpura massacre was a mass murder in the village of Chittisinghpura, Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, which occurred on 20 March 2000 when a number of gunmen wearing Indian Army uniforms shot and killed 35 Sikhs. It occurred on the eve of American president Bill Clinton's state visit to India.

Chittisinghpura massacre
Location	Chittisinghpura, Anantnag district, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Date	20 March 2000
Target	Sikhs
Attack type	Mass murder
Deaths	35

Although the Indian government attributed the massacre to the Pakistan-based militant organizations Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, independent authorities accused the Indian Army of carrying the massacre. Hizbul Mujahideen's leader Syed Salahuddin denied any affiliation and assured Kashmiri Sikhs of support against India whereas the Lashkar-e-Taiba remained silent. The mass murder remains the deadliest massacre of Sikhs in Kashmir, a region where Sikhs had usually been spared from militant violence.

Killings

Wearing Indian Army fatigues, the unknown gunmen arrived into the village in military vehicles in two groups at opposite ends of the village where the two gurdwaras were located. The militants marched from home to home, introducing themselves as Indian Army personnel and ordered every male member of the household come out for security checks.^[1] They ordered them to line up in front of the gurdwaras and opened fire, killing thirty-five Sikhs.^[2]

Aftermath

The massacre was a turning point in the Kashmir issue, where Sikhs had usually been spared from militant violence.^[3]

Shortly after the massacre, many Kashmiri Sikhs protested in Jammu, criticising the Indian government for failing to protect the villagers, and demanding retaliation.^[4][5] Following the killing, Syeed Salahudeen, Pakistan-based leader of the largest Kashmiri militant group Hizbul-Mujahideen, denounced the massacre, accusing India of it, and assured the Kashmiri Sikh community of the militants' support.^[6]

Perpetrators

The Indian government asserted that the massacre was conducted by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).^[6][7][8] Other accounts accuse the Indian Army of the massacre.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]} Former Indian Army Sikh general KS Gill promoted the claim that this massacre was carried out by Indian soldiers.^[16][17]

Survivors interviewed by journalists insisted that the perpetrators had looked and spoken "like people from South India" and had shouted pro-India slogans after the massacre.^[9][12]

In 2000, Indian authorities claimed hat Mohammad Suhail Malik, a nephew of Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder Hafiz Saeed, confessed while in Indian custody to participating in the attacks at the direction of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He repeated the claim in an interview with Barry Bearak of The New York Times while still in Indian custody, although Bearak questioned the authenticity of the confession.^[18] In 2011, a Delhi court cleared Malik of the charges.^[19]

In an introduction to a book written by Madeleine Albright titled The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (2006), Hillary Clinton accused "Hindu militants" of perpetrating the act,^[20] which evoked outrage of some Hindu groups. Clinton's office did not return calls seeking comment or clarification. The publishers, HarperCollins, later acknowledged "a failure in the fact-checking process" but did not offer a retraction.^[20]

In 2010, the Lashkar-e-Taiba associate David Headley, who was arrested in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, reportedly told the National Investigation Agency and in US court that the LeT carried out the Chittisinghpura massacre.^[21] He is said to have identified an LeT militant named Muzzamil as part of the group which carried out the killings apparently to create communal tension just before Clinton's visit.^[22]

In 2005, Sikh organizations headed by the Bhai Kanahiya Jee Nishkam Seva Society demanded a deeper state inquiry into the details of the massacre^[23] and for the inquiry to be made public. The state government ordered an inquiry into the massacre.

In 2017, Retd Lt Gen KS Gill, who was part of the investigation, in an interview to Sikh News Express, told Journalist Jasneet Singh that the Indian Army was involved in the massacre and the report had been submitted to L.K.Advani who was the Home Minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government then.^[24]