After the Machil verdict, focus has shifted on the infamous Patrhibal fake encounter case of 2000 with families of the slain demanding the reopening of the case.
Indian army had given clean chit to five of its soldiers --Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lieutenant Colonel Brajendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan-- accused in Pathribal fake encounter of 2000 in which five civilians were killed after branding them militants.
Five army men were charge-sheeted by CBI in 2006 for killing five civilians after branding them militants in Pathribal village of south Kashmir's Anantnag district. A court of enquiry constituted by the army following the Supreme Court judgment in March 2012 has allegedly not found any prima facie evidence against the accused.
On January 24, the army said the evidence recorded could not establish a prime facie case against any of the accused persons, but clearly established that it was a joint operation by the police and the army based on specific intelligence.
With army general court martial (GCM) sentencing seven of its men to life imprisonment, the cries for reopening the Pathribal case is growing shriller by the hour.
"We had protested against the Centre and state government. We will not rest till the people involved in the killings of our dear ones are punished. We want that our case should be reopened and the accused punished," said Abdul Rashid Khan, son of the slain Juma Khan.
The incident dates back to 2000 when security forces branded five innocent men as militants and killed them in Pathribal village. Before burying them their bodies were charred beyond recognition.
Jammu and Kashmir government ordered the exhumation of the bodies of Pathribal killings and their DNA samples were sent to forensic laboratories in Hyderabad where it was found that the samples were fudged. The case was handed over to the CBI which had charge-sheeted the army officers in 2006.
However the army invoked the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which provides immunity to the army personnel deployed in the areas declared disturbed by the government. The CBI however had argued that the accused army officers involved in the fake encounter have no immunity and demanded stern punishments for them.
"What more proof you need when CBI has charged the armymen of killing. We want justice. We will not rest till justice is done," said Rashid Khan.
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