By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Sailan (Poonch): On a hot summer night of August 3, 1998, Shabir Ahmed, then 18, was sleeping inside his house in Sailan village of Surankote Tehsil of district Poonch, along with his old parents and four sisters. As the clock struck midnight, the sound of jackboots broke through the peace and tranquillity around the village. Those days, militancy in the region was at its peak, and so were the counter insurgency operations of security forces. The sound of jackboots had become synonymous with their presence.
Shabir woke up and peeped outside the window and saw dozens of army personnel with local Special Police Officers (SPO) in hurry, rushing towards his house. He had barely closed the window when they broke the door with a huge bang, asked everyone to gather and took them to an adjacent house that belonged to his uncle, Hassan Mohammad Sheikh. The family of his other uncle Lassa Shiekh had already been assembled in the hall of the house.
Earlier that day, one of Shabir’s cousins, Imtiaz Sheikh son of Lassa Sheikh, who was a militant, was alleged to have killed a local policeman Zakir who also worked as an informer for the local army camp of 9 Para commando battalion in Baflayaz block of Surankot Tehsil.
“The army had swung into action after the killing of one of their informers in the town and one Major had threatened the family of Imtiaz that they won’t be able to see the dawn if they didn’t tell where Imtiaz was hiding,” recalls Shabir.
The troopers from 9 para army and the family members of Zakir who were also working in the police had come that night to take revenge.
“As we were assembled in the room, the major started asking my uncle about Imtiaz to which he had replied that he had no contact with him since the day he left home to join militant ranks. The major got angry at his reply and asked an army personnel to beat him until he divulged the details,” Shabir says.
The beating of Lassa Shiekh led to commotion in the room and amidst all this, Shabir dodged the forces and escaped inside the cattle shed beside the room and stayed there.
“As soon as I escaped, the women and children were sobbing and crying, while seeing my uncle getting beaten mercilessly. A soldier shot my uncle and suddenly all the guns were aimed at the old, young and children’s in the room. The firing continued for around 20 minutes to ensure everyone was dead,” he said.
That night 19 family members of Sheikh Family were brutally killed by the forces, first shooting them down with the bullets and later hacking them with axes to ensure everyone was dead.
“My parents and four sisters were killed that day. It took us three days to bury all of them. We were threatened and intimidated to shut up and we were in fear and we didn’t do anything for next three years following the massacre,” he says.
The police filed a FIR on its own accord and started the investigation immediately after the brutal massacre and arrested the policemen involved, but were released within days.
“The pressure from upwards lead to their release. They gave false statements and gave different versions to different inquiry committees,” said Abdul Ahad now 46 whose four children’s and wife were killed in the massacre. Ahad, then 27, survived because his father Hassan Mohd Sheikh killed made him run away when they saw policemen approaching. His father, who was killed that day, thought the police might go after youngsters and spare the elderly and children. He was proven wrong.
In September 1998, the government had ordered State Human Rights Commission for spot visit to Sailan village to probe into the killings and the SHRC team in its findings confirmed the role of local policemen and the troopers of 9 para into the killings.
“It is not difficult but easy to draw conclusion how the occurrence of killing took place and who is responsible for the same. While lifting the dead body of Zakir, SPO army had vowed to wipe twenty persons even before his burial,” SHRC said in its report.
“One glaring fact noted when bloodbath of 19 persons taking place in the house of Ahmad Din, the army picket being only 200 meters away, the army supposed to be vigilant around the clock did not come on the spot to intervene when civilians had been ordered not to move after 6:30 pm. The silence of army by that time of occurrence is not meaningless, uniformed personnel seen moving with torch light around the scene of occurrence then moving down to board the vehicles or on the main road, leaving none in doubt except bias mind.”
But even this damning report, the case stayed in limbo until 2011, when the victim families filed a petition in the Jammu High Court and the court in November 2012 handed over the case to CBI.
Disposing of the petition filed by the victim families seeking the investigation by a Special Investigation Team of the CBI, the Court of Muzaffar Hussain Attar had directed CBI to take over the case for investigation.
“It is provided that CBI will take the matter for investigation and conduct the probe in accordance with law and ensure that justice is meted out to the petitioners,” the court had said.
In September 2015, three years after taking over the investigations, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has pleaded that Sailan massacre case should be closed.
“We had high hopes from CBI, that its investigation will lead to the persecution of the guilty but it again turned out to like the previous investigation and we were denied justice again,” said Ahad.
The CBI had exonerated the accused police officers of involvement and had reported that the eyewitnesses were not present at the scene of the time.
“I was very much present there. If I won’t have dodged the forces and gone in that cattle shed, I would have been dead the same night,” says Shabir.
Abdul Ahad survived, but his four children and wife were murdered that night. He still repents leaving them behind.
“I should have died with them that day itself. My kids were killed before they could walk on their feet,” says Ahad.
Despite receiving a huge setback from CBI, the victim families have decided to fight for justice whatever it may take. In October 2015, the families filed a petition challenging the closure report in CBI court, Jammu.
“The next hearing in the case is on 25 August. We are fed up with running from pillar to post to fight for justice, but we won’t rest until we get the perpetrators of this gruesome crime behind the bars,” says Shabir.
On August 3, 2017, the fight for justice entered its 19th year and the case is being re heard due to the transfer of judges.
“The burden of those coffins was so heavy that even if it takes my whole life to fight for the justice, I will happily give it,” Shabir adds.