Pathribal encounter: SC notice to Centre, CBI, army on plea by victims’ families

The Supreme Court issued on Friday notice to the Centre, CBI and army on a petition challenging an order of the Jammu and Kashmir high court which had dismissed a petition against the military’s decision to close proceedings against five officers involved in the March 2000 Pathribal encounter.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra gave six weeks to the respondents.

Filed by the families of the five men killed in the encounter, the petition said forensic tests had exposed army’s claim that those killed were Pakistani militants. A CBI probe also established this.

“The dead men are the kin of the petitioners as the DNA examination by CDFD Hyderabad and CFSL Kolkata reveal. Therefore the case is one of cold blooded murder as found by CBI,” it said.

Those killed were local villagers, the petition said, and alleged that the “fake encounter” was staged by the army to “save face in the view of public criticism of their operational efficiency and lack of control in area in the wake of Chittisinghpora massacre.”