The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Saturday ordered the resumption of trial in the horrific Nadimarg massacre case. 24 Kashmiri Pandits were brutally murdered by Lashkar-e-Taiba Jihadis on March 23, 2003, in Pulwama, south Kashmir in this massacre.
A bench of Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul ordered the resumption of the trial, saying that the trial court’s rejection of the prosecution’s plea to record statements of witnesses was incorrect.
“The revision petition is permitted.” The trial court order dated February 9, 2011, has been set aside by the High Court. The state government had filed a revision plea in February 2011 challenging the trial court, and the HC has now accepted the plea. “The prosecution-State/application petitioner’s for the issuance of a commission for the examination of witnesses is granted,” Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul directed.
The High Court had upheld the trial court order in February 2011, and in August this year, that verdict has recalled.
[Brutal killing of 24 Kashmiri Pandits at Nadimarg, J&K] High Court has directed Trial Court to resume trial and examine witnesses through video-conferencing; and also “ensure expeditious proceedings so as to conclude the matter at the earliest”.#KashmiriPandits
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) October 29, 2022
The High Court has directed the trial court to video-conference witnesses and to “ensure expeditious proceedings so that the matter can be concluded at the earliest.” The court also indicted the trial court, noting that it had not attempted to examine all of the witnesses on commission in order to uncover the truth in “a case of heinous nature like the one at hand.”
“Given the well-settled legal position laid down by the Supreme Court, 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 court said, adding that the court should have allowed the prosecution to record the statement of witnesses on commission.
The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court reopened the Nadimarg Massacre case on August 26, 2022.
This came after the state government filed an application to have an order that dismissed a criminal revision petition in December 2011 that challenged a lower court order. The lower court’s order had barred the prosecution from questioning witnesses and materials related to the Nadimarg massacre.
The Nadimarg Massacre (2003)
In 2003, the village of Nadimarg was home to only 52 Kashmiri Pandits comprised of four extended families, with others having fled the valley during their community’s exodus in 1990.
On March 23, 2003, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists attacked the Nadimarg village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama District and killed 24 Hindu Kashmiri Pandits. Armed militants dressed in fake military uniforms dragged Kashmiri Hindus from their homes, lined them up, and shot them with automatic weapons.
The victims, 11 men, 11 women, and two children, ranged in age from 65 to two years. The Islamist terrorists disfigured the victims’ bodies, looted their homes, and stole the ornaments from the dead women’s bodies.
In April 2003, police arrested Zia Mustafa, saying that he and other Lashkar-e-Taiba militants carried out the massacre on the orders of the LeT leaders in Pakistan.
Following the massacre, an FIR was filed in Zainapore, and seven perpetrators were brought before the Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Pulwama, after an investigation. Later, the case was transferred to the Shopian Court of Principal Sessions Judge.
Notably, the prime suspect, Pakistani terrorist Zia Mustafa, died in custody in October 2021. Mustafa was taken to identify a militant hideout in Poonch, according to police. During the searches, terrorists opened fire, stoking a gunfight in which Mustafa was killed, as per the police.
The LeT terrorists who carried out the massacre of Hindus in 2003 allegedly wanted to commemorate Pakistan Resolution Day, which also falls on March 23rd, or to exact vengeance for the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.
