ANIL NARENDRA

If by carrying out a brutal massacre of 35 Sikhs of Chatti Singh Pura village in Anant Nag District of Kashmir Pakistan intended to draw the world attention to the Kashmir issue than it was their big failure. The world ,on the contrary reacted negatively and condemned the killings in the strongest terms. From the United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annam , the US president Bill Clinton to the rest of the world. one to all has strongly condemned these killings. As far as India is concerned , such an incident has expressed all that India had been trying to prove for many years. Even President Clinton was compelled to change his stance on India's security concerns. The US and the Western world now have started realizing that Pakistan is supporting militancy in the name of Jehad and unnecessarily trying to prove their evil designs.

As usual Pakistan is holding India responsible for this massacre. ,saying that these killings were planned by the Indian Intelligence agencies. A charge strongly denied by the Indian government. Home Minister Advani. said that it is not an isolated massacre incident but a deliberate design, the same as they were doing with the Hindu minorities so as to get rid of the targeted community. Advani said that now they have started targeting the Sikhs so that they too start migrating and vacate the valley.

The militants deceived the innocent victims. before shooting at them. The killers dressed in Indian army uniforms asked the villagers to show their identity cards -This clearly proves their attentions. Nanak Singh an eye witness told that as he along with the other villagers was coming from a nearby Gurudwara He was stopped by some people wearing masks. These killers made a lot of inquiries and examined our identity cards. He also noticed that some of them entered the houses of the Sikh villagers and started shouting to come of their houses. Nanak Singh who is under treatment in an orthopedic hospital at Srinagar. He further told that he saw that these killers by that time had started shooting down the Sikhs. He could see his mates falling down with blood splashed all over their bodies. One of the bullets had pierced through his leg too. He fainted while trying to escape from there. He was brought to the hospital in that very condition.

The Union Home Ministry said that this campaign is an attempt to divert attention from the well known fact that it was the work of Pakistan sponsored terrorists, including foreign mercenaries with the clear purpose of furthering the campaign of ethnic cleansing and evoke communal disharmony in Jammu -Kashmir and elsewhere. This massacre was carried out by 17 Lashkar-E-Tioba and Hizbul Mujahideen militants. The Indian security forces got a vital break in this case when one Mohammed Yaqoob Wagay spilled the beans. He was an accomplice in this massacre. Wagey arrested by the J&K police said that he had participated in the ‘carnage on the night of 20^th March. Disclosing this the Union Home Secretary Mr. Kamal Pandey said, the militants were jointly led by Abu Mahaj of Lashkar-E-Tioba and Saifullah of Hizbul.Yaqoob,a well known figure in the village who owned a shop before becoming a militant,accompanieds the ultras when they entered the village, segregated the men and shot them. The militants-split into two groups and called the males out of their houses. They were told that it was an army crackdown. Some of the militants were dressed in Army fatigues, Mr. Pandey said. The militants were armed with one LMG and 16-AK 47 rifles. While maintaining that this was not a case of Intelligence failure, Mr. Pandey confirmed a wireless intercept suggesting that the militants were about to strike. "But we did not have specific information that the militants were going to strike at Chatti Singh Pura"he said.

This ethenic cleansing plan by the ISI have is a well thought out plan worked out under the scheme "Nizama e-Mustafa ". For a long time they had been trying hard to bring Nizam-E-Mustafa.in action This scheme was started in 1987, when they compelled the Kashmiri Hindus to migrate from the Kashmir Valley. During the last one decade when most of the Sikh families started migrating from the valley ,the Akali leader Simaranjeet Singh Maan persuaded them to stay on . Sikhs respected their leaders call and their families who had left started coming back to their homes. Even today several Sikh families are still living in the districts of Anant Naag, Baramula, Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley. Now the ISI wants to force the remaining Sikh families out of the valley. Gradually the ISI seems to be succeeding in their bid to implement Nizam-E-Mustafa in toto in the valley.All the 35 Sikhs brutally killed by the terrorists were related to each other. Four to five members of each family were shot down. Such an incident has once again proved that these terrorists care a damn for human life or humanity. They are neither Sikhs nor Hindus nor Muslims.

Although this incident is being viewed in the wake of US President's visit to India but one should not overlook the fact that Pakistan has been cutup with the Sikh community for sometime now. .I S I had full intentions to break the integrity of the Sikhs towards their nation. The intelligence agencies were warned in advance of such types of incidents, they had reports that the ISI might any time target the Sikhs in the manner they had done with the Hindu families. Similar intelligence reports were also given to the Punjab government. They were warned in advance that the ISI was wanting to take revenge against the Sikhs because of the bravery of the Sikh officers in the Indian Army, Para Military forces and the Police. One should note that the Sikhs hold several key positions in the Indian forces. The ISI had earlier designed similar conditions in Punjab too. In their bid to arouse human feelings followed by the communal riots - they had full intentions to cash upon the instability so caused. The Indian Embassy in Washington has accused Pakistan of trying to deflect the blame for the Chatti Singh massacre from itself to misguide the Sikh community in America and elsewhere to drive a wedge between the Sikhs in the US and their brethren in India.

Relatives of the victims of the massacre gave a very angry welcome to the Union Home Minister Mr. .L .K. Advani when he visited the village on 26^th March. The irrate villagers, mostly Sikhs, shouted slogans against Pakistan , and Farroq Abdullah.They demanded revenge for the massacre .Later talking to reporters outside the village Gurudwara , Mr. Advani said" In recent time while other parts of the valley were well protected, this area was not, this was one reason for the attack. Therefor, the assailants felt this was a soft target. They were under pressure from their mentors across the border that there must be a major event during Clinton’s visit. Under this pressure they felt it was a soft target and therefor for the first time in all these 50 years, a Sikh community has been targeted and that too in this brutal and dastardly manner,35 people were killed in cold blood"

This massacre has wide repercussions as far as Pakistan is concerned. If ISI had some hope of recruiting some Sikh elements in their ranks they would now find that impossible. The massacre Of Chatti Singh Pura will put an end to all hopes of unification of earst while Sikh militants and their Kashmiri counterparts under the protective sponsorship of Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency-ISI. Intelligence sources say the ISI green signal to Kashmir ultras to hit at a Sikh village also indicates that the former’ s preferences are now clear. Now the Sikh militants hiding in Pakistan and enjoying the ISI patronage are getting desperate to get out. The truth however unpleasant it may appear is, that a large number of Sikh militants who were part of the terrorist groups operating in Punjab at the height of militancy are being kept "safe" by Pakistan. While the Babbar Khalsa International is the only one with some expertise and cadre to carry on their destructive activities in India, the rest are more or less finished. The Chatti Singh Pura Massacre will dash all remaining hopes of the ISI to unify the Sikh explosive experts and the Kashmiri cadre to carry out the hits. This has also been confirmed by the intelligence reports that several Sikh leaders are sneaking out of Pakistan. Some have come back to India while others have sneaked to Toronto, South Africa and The United Kingdom.

Though this massacre has put a scare in the minds of the Sikh’s living in J&K yet they say that if proper protection is given they will stay and fight the militants. The villagers have also asked the Government to give them arms liberally to settle score with the militants. If the ISI had plans to scare the Sikh community out of the valley just as they did with the Kashmiri Pandit’s then they are in for a shock and miscalculation. India is fully aware of the Pak designs. That’s why the Indian leadership is trying hard ,trying to convince the Sikhs not to leave the valley under any circumstances. At the ‘Bhog’ ceremony held last Friday, Sikhs from all State gathered at Chatti Singh Pura in memory of the massacre .The Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal who went specially to attend the ceremony and assured the Sikh community, said, "there was a big conspiracy behind the killing’s and the Sikhs should not take a hasty decision on migration. The Centre and the State government would take some vital decisions for their security and instill a sense of security among them. "He rejected the demand for a probe into the massacre ,stating that it had been proved that it had been perpetrated by the militants. The gathering was also addressed by Shabir Shah. senior separatist leader Shah called for an impartial probe into the incident. "Nobody is sure about the identity of the culprits behind this massacre, but I assure you that the majority community has no role in this mysterious incident. We don’t want you to leave Kashmir. We will ensure your safety "said Shah. But you also have to understand the conspiracies to break this bond that has kept you here in the worst of times .The Union Minister for Civil Aviation and the Jammu M.P. Chaman Lal Gupta assured the Sikhs living in 135 villages in the valley that their government would provide them adequate protection. The Chief Minister of Kashmir Mr. Farooq Abdullah however was conspicuous by his absence at this Bhog ceremony.