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Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday admitted that the five people killed by the state police at Pathribal on March 23, 2000 were innocent locals and not foreign militants as claimed by the police.
The five were earlier identified by the government as the terrorists responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chattisinghpora on March 21, 2000.
DNA reports received from laboratories in Kolkata and Hyderabad have established that all the five persons killed were locals.
The DNA reports were tabled in the state assembly on Tuesday by Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
Dr Abdullah informed the house that a CBI probe had been ordered into the incident.
He identified the five civilians killed at Pathribal as Zahoor Ahmed Dalal, Juma Khan, Mohammad Yussuf Malik, Juma Khan (different from the one mentioned earlier) and Bashir Ahmed Bhat.
Raja Dalal, mother of Zahoor Ahmed Dalal, when contacted said: "Now the world knows we were not lying. Our stand has been vindicated...the guilt of the officials involved has been proved beyond any shade of doubt."
In the aftermath of the Sikh massacre at Chattisinghpora, the security forces had claimed to have eliminated five 'foreign militants' responsible for the carnage in an encounter in Pathribal forests.
The bodies of the five persons killed were charred beyond recognition.
Subsequent public protests forced the state administration to exhume the five bodies and order DNA tests on them to establish the true identity of those killed.
However, the DNA samples collected and sent to laboratories in Kolkata and Hyderabad were found to be fudged.
An embarrassed government suspended the entire team of forensic experts headed by Dr Balbir Kaur, head of department of forensic science, Medical College, Srinagar.
Later, fresh samples were collected by experts from Kolkata and Hyderabad.
The final reports received from the two laboratories on Monday said there was conclusive evidence that the five people killed in Pathribal were locals and not foreign militants as claimed by the police.
EARLIER REPORTS: J&K orders inquiry into killing of 'militants' J&K govt orders probe into DNA tampering case Army's revenge strike gets it into trouble
CHATTISINGHPORA MASSACRE: 35 Sikhs gunned down in Kashmir Hurriyat chief hints security forces killed Sikhs Farooq assures Sikhs of protection
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