The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is set to chargesheet five Army officers, including a Brigadier, for the alleged abduction and murder of five unarmed, innocent Kashmiris in the infamous Pathribal “encounter” in Anantnag in March 2000.

The agency’s indictment is sweeping: from Army officers faking witness statements and “fabricating evidence” to passing off the premeditated killings as a “stage-managed encounter”; from the hasty burial of the bodies to evidence that the weapons the Army said it used were not used at all.

The chargesheet, to be filed in the next few days in a Jammu and Kashmir court, names Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lt Col Brijendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar I Khan.

The case hit international headlines, coming as it did four days after the Chittisinghpora massacre in which 35 Sikh villagers were lined up and killed, allegedly by militants. The fact that US President Bill Clinton was in India at that time amplified the significance of the event.

The five persons killed in Pathribal on March 24, 2000, were made out to be foreign militants behind the Chittisinghpora massacre. When local residents took out a protest march complaining these were men gone missing from nearby villages and killed in cold blood, they were fired upon near Brakpora. Ten more persons were killed.

Confirming the CBI’s decision, Director Vijay Shankar told The Indian Express: “The Army has performed an exceptional role in Jammu and Kashmir. However, there are one or two encounters where their role has been severely criticized. The Anantnag encounter is one such case which can be called an aberration and it was necessary for the CBI to clear the good name of the Army and expose persons responsible for the fake encounter.’’

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