Pathribal case: Guv asked to intervene

In the backdrop of the Army’s decision to close the Pathribal fake encounter case, a delegation from various villages of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district called on the Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra on Thursday and sought his intervention.

The delegation under the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party MLA from Shangus constituency, Peerzada Mansoor Hussain, appealed to the governor to intervene for securing justice to the victims families.

Official sources said the delegation apprised Vohra about the serious grievances of the people on the Army’s decision to close the case. They petitioned that justice must be done in this case.

“The governor observed that he had already spoken to the concerned authorities and would follow-up with both the state and Central governments,” sources said.

The Army had last week closed the Pathribal fake encounter case saying that the evidence recorded could not establish prime facie charges against any of the accused.

Five people were killed on March 26, 2000, at Pathribal in South Kashmir and the Army had claimed that those killed were mercenaries who were responsible for gunning down 35 members of the Sikh community in an attack on March 21, while the then US President Bill Clinton was on a visit to India.

In 2006, the CBI indicted five Army personnel for staging the fake encounter, while giving a clean chit to the state police. Consequent to the CBI probe and an order from the Supreme Court in March 2012, the Army had taken over the case from the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Srinagar.