CBI to chargesheet five Army men for Anantnag killings

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) The CBI today said it would chargesheet Brigadier Ajay Saxena and four other army officials for allegedly killing five innocent people in an encounter at Pathribal in Anantnag district in Jammu and Kashmir on March 25, 2000.

Investigation of the case was complete and the chargesheet would be filed in a Special Court against Brig Saxena, Lt Col (then Major) Bijendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan of Rashtriya Rifles, said the CBI Spokesman here.

According to the investigation, the Army carried out ''Operation swift'' in the forest of Pathribal and killed the innocent people in a fake encounter.

The CBI said the Army was under tremendous pressure for the killing of 36 sikhs at Chhittisnghpoora on March 20, 2000 when then American President Bill Clinton had visited India.

The Army was blamed for the killings as it was a major intelligence failure.

The investigation of the case was entrusted to the CBI in January 2003 by the J&K Government after the relatives of the slain people complained that they were innocent and had gone to the forest in the morning.

The accused had allegedly told the CBI that the information about the ''militants'' was provided to them by the Superintendent of Police of Anantnag on March, 25, 2000.

However, the J&K Police denied that they had provided the information to the Army.

After killing them, the Army had handed over their bodies to the Achchabal police station mentioning that three were Pakistani militants and two unidentified.

The accused had also shown fake recovery of arms and ammunitions from them in the encounter to prove that they were militants.

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