20 March, 2000: The Chattisinghpora Massacre: "When 35 innocent Sikhs were ruthlessly killed by Islamist terrorists in Kashmir”

 

 

Twenty-four years ago on this day, Islamist terrorists supported by Pakistan brutally massacred 35 innocent Sikhs in the village of Chattisinghpora in Kashmir, whose wounds still remain fresh today. The massacre occurred on the eve of the then US President Bill Clinton's visit to India.

 

 

Chattisinghpora, a small village in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, was the site of the massacre. The village had a significant Sikh population.

 

 

 

On the evening of March 20, 2000, a groupof Islamist terrorists, 15 to 20 in number and in army fatigues, entered Chattisinghpora and gathered residents of the village in queues outside gurudwara and started raining bullets at them. The attackers indiscriminately shot at them, resulting in the deaths of 35 Sikhs.

 

 

 

"A lone survivor (Nanak Singh) who somehow managed to save himself recounted how 15-20 terrorists disguised in army uniforms entered the village and ordered them to line up outside the gurudwara. Then they opened fire, indiscriminately shooting everyone. He mentioned that he would have also been killed if he hadn't pretended to be dead. However, this eyewitness tragically lost his son and brothers in this incident."

 

According to the Intelligence agencies, the attack was carried out by Pakistan sponsored terror outfits,

Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, like the other massacres in Jammu and Kashmir that have been happening for years.

 

Every year, Sikhs in the Chattisinghpura pay homage to the departed souls on the anniversary of the massacre. They commemorate the fallen ones by observing three days of mourning and memorial events.