Srinagar, August 04, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) has decried delay in justice to the families of Sailan massacre victims despite passing of 20 years. The JKCCS in a statement issued in Srinagar said, “On August 03, 1998 in Sailan village of Surankote in Poonch district, 19 civilians (13 female, 6 male including 11 children) were shot dead at point blank range in their homes by four special police officers of Indian police and the personnel of the 9-Para commando battalion. Police officers including then superintendent of police (Poonch) were also implicated in the crime and cover up.”
The JKCSS said the Sailan massacre is not just an illustration of the brutality of crimes committed in occupied Kashmir but also an apt example of the manner in which the system seeks to exhaust, disappoint families of victims, and in the end attempt to ensure impunity for the Indian forces’ personnel.
The statement said that the families of the victims commemorated the massacre with members of civil society at Surankote in Poonch. Since 1998, the families of the victims have waged a struggle for justice before the Human Rights Commission of occupied Kashmir, High Court, CBI court and now back before the High Court, it said. The statement said that the families on 16 July 2018 submitted a detailed complaint in this regard to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions of the UN Human Rights Council. “This forms another important step in the struggle for justice especially in light of the recent UN report on Jammu and Kashmir,” it added.
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