HC allows resumption of 2003 Nadimarg massacre case

The J&K police had named seven people, including five policemen, as accused in the case. The main accused, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zia Mustafa, was killed in an encounter last year in Poonch.

Srinagar: The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh high court on Saturday allowed fast resumption of the 2003 Nadimarg massacre case, a decade after the trial in the case was halted abruptly.

Hearing the State’s plea on Saturday, the single bench of high court, led by Justice Vinod Koul, ordered a fresh examination of the witnesses. (Representational photo)

In March 2003, unidentified gunmen lined up 24 members of the Kashmiri Pandit community and shot them dead in Nadimarg village of Pulwama district in southern parts of the Valley.

The J&K police had named seven people, including five policemen, as accused in the case. The main accused, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zia Mustafa, was killed in an encounter last year in Poonch.

In February 2011,the trial court had dismissed an application seeking examination of witnesses through process of commission, saying it was filed at a belated stage just to avoid the disposal of the case. It also said that since all the witnesses are very important, their statements cannot be taken on commission.

The J&K government later approached the Supreme Court in 2014, seeking a review of the trial order. The SC, however, transferred the matter to the high court. The case was eventually reopened in August this year.

Hearing the State’s plea on Saturday, the single bench of high court, led by Justice Vinod Koul, ordered a fresh examination of the witnesses. “The application for issuance of commission for examination of witnesses moved by the prosecution-State/petitioner is allowed. The court below shall now take all the necessary measures for ensuring the examination of the witnesses concerned by issuing commission and/or recording their statement videoconferencing and shall ensure expeditious proceedings so as to conclude the matter at the earliest,” said the seven-page order.

“I am of the view that the court below has dismissed the application of the prosecution-State for examining the witness on commission on the irrelevant consideration while overlooking the material and relevant aspects of the case. The said application of the prosecution for recording statements of witnesses on commission deserved to be allowed,” it added.

The prosecution told the court that witnesses of this case have migrated from Kashmir and were not ready to depose before the trial court in Shopian due to threat.