Special Correspondent
| The accused showed fake recovery of arms and ammunition from 5 killed civilians |
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is set to file a chargesheet against five Army personnel for killing five innocent civilians six years ago at Pathribal village in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir allegedly in a fake encounter. The agency has decided to prosecute five Army personnel -- Brigadier Ajay Saxen, Lt-Col. Brajendra Pratap Singh, Major Saurabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan of 7 Rashtriya Rifles for staging a fake encounter to eliminate the five civilians at Pathribal on March 25, 2000. The case was taken up for probe by the CBI in January 2003 on the request of the State government. It was found during the investigation that following the killing of 36 Sikhs at Chhittising Pora on March 20, 2000, the Army unit of 7 RR located in Anantnag district was under tremendous psychological pressure to show results as charges of inefficiency and ineffectiveness on their part were being hurled. Brig. Ajay Saxena, the then Major B.P. Singh, Major Saurabh Sharma, Subedar Idrees Khan and other identified personnel of 7 RR allegedly entered into a conspiracy to pick up some innocent persons and stage-manage an encounter to create the impression that the militants responsible for Chhittising Pora killings had been neutralised. During investigation, the accused claimed that they had received information regarding the militants from the then Superintendent of Police Farooq Khan on the night of March 24, 2000 and had carried out ``Operation Swift'' in Panchalthan forests on March 25 morning, resulting in the death of five civilians. |
