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(Note from Hindu Vivek Kendra: Will all those who have been saying that actually the killings were done by the Indian Army, disguised as terrorists, come out and say that they were wrong? We understand that the Congressional records in the USA show that this allegation of the army complicity was strongly alleged by a member of the House of Representatives. A particular person that comes to our mind is Pankaj Mishra who had written a very long piece in a publication of The New York Times, spreading the same canard. It is said that Mishra is in line with some journalistic or literary award.)
New York, December 31 (PTI) - A Pakistani militant, arrested in connection with the March massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chittisinghpora, Kashmir, has admitted to his being a member of the attackers' team and his affiliation to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) outfit, a media report said here on Sunday.
Suhail Malik of Sialkot, interviewed by a New York Times correspondent in an Indian prison, has said he had no regrets for participating in the massacre, which coincided with the US President Bill Clinton's five-day visit to India from march 20.
Malik said he had opened fire on the Sikhs just because he had been ordered to do so by his commanders and that he knew nothing about the plot to kill the Sikhs until immediately as he stood in an orchard where the 35 people were killed. " I used my weapons when commanded... We are told what to do and not why. Afterwards we were told not to talk about it," 18-year-old Malik said.
"The Koran teaches us not to kill innocents. (But) if Lashkar-e-Tayyeba told us to kill those people (Sikhs), then it was right to do it. I have no regrets," he added.
He said in the interview that "when I was sent here from Pakistan, I was told the Indian Army kills Muslims. It treats them badly and burns their mosques and refuses to let them pray. They must be freed from these clutches," he said.
Malik said LeT had tutored him in marksmanship and mountain climbing. He sneaked into India in October, 1999, with an Indian equivalent of $200 in expense money. He took part only in two attacks before Chittisinghpora - - one on an Army outpost and the other on a bus carrying soliders.
In Sialkot, his father insisted that he did not know to which group Malik belonged even though a glossy decal of Lashkar was on one of the walls of the room in which the correspondent interviewed him, the paper wrote.
And his "favourite" uncle declined to answer any question but lashed out at Christians and Jews.
Malik agreed that he is likely to spend the rest of his life in an Indian prison. Terming this as "a dreary prospect", he said would have preferred the "glory of martyrdom".
Malik said he had attended a government school through fifth grade but like many boys in Pakistan, had switched over to a Madrassa, a Muslim religious academy.
He said he heard the speeches of LeT's leaders while studying in Lahore and trusted their vision of the world and trusted still.
The article says Malik showed no signs of abuse but the torture of someone in his situation would not be unusual.
In Lahore, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who is a leader of Lashkar and its parent organization Markaz ad-Daawa Wal Irashad (the center for preaching), refused to recognise Malik when his photograph was shown to him.
When told about Malik's reverence to him and his confession, he looked at the picture and said, "We do not believe in killing innocents. I have condemned this very massacre," the paper wrote.
He glanced at the picture a second
time and said he doubted Malik ever belonged to Lashkar. "It is very
easy to extract statements with torture. Look, you can see he is
handcuffed and not free to talk," he added.
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