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An old couple grieves over the body of their only son

The Chittisinghpura Massacre refers to the cold blooded murder of 35 Sikhs, which occurred on the evening of March 20, 2000 at small Jammu and Kashmir village called "Chittisinghpura". The massacre was carried out by about 20 unidentified terrorists though a member of the Islamic fundamentalist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba ("LeT") has confessed to their involvement in the massacre. According to Amnesty International, the massacre was linked to other massacres in the region where the people have doubted the government's account of the story. 1

Several witnesses have said that about 20 men, clad in olive green combat fatigues, arrived in the village at 7-15 p.m. They told the people that they were Indian soldiers, and ordered the men out to be questioned. The captors spoke Urdu. The village men were lined up in two groups, a few hundred metres from each other. One of the captive men who had been lined up recognised someone among the gunmen. He asked, "Chattiya, tu idhar kya kar raha hai?" ("Chattia, What are you doing here?"). The person he spoke to immediately opened fire. At the same time all captors began firing. As they started firing, the gunmen shouted 'Jai Mata Di' and 'Jai Hind'. In theatrical fashion, one of them took swigs from a bottle of rum even as the killing went on. While leaving, one of the men called out to his associates: "Gopal, chalo hamare saath" ("Gopal, Come with us"). .....More