Civilian witnesses will be allowed to depose: Army

"We will go strictly as per the rules...There will be no short cuts, we will be transparent and will ensure that every person who was involved is asked to depose in the inquiry. Therefore, witnesses will not only be from Army, but they will be civilians, they will be from other security forces... whosoever was involved," GOC-in-C Northern Command Lt Gen K T Parnaik told reporters here.

"The Army has taken over both the Pathribal and Machil cases from the magistrate as per the directions of the Supreme Court and will proceed against the people under the provisions of the Army Act and Army rules," he said.

Brig Ajay Saxena, Lt Col Brajendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan were charge-sheeted by the CBI in 2006 for killing five civilians at Pathribal in Kashmir Valley and later dubbing them as foreign militants.

As per the CBI investigation, the five civilians were killed and branded as militants days after 35 Sikhs were massacred in the nearby Chattisingpora village.

Three civilians were killed in an alleged fake encounter at Machil in 2010 and later branded as foreign militants.

Lt Gen Parnaik said the Army has already began contacting witnesses. "The process of getting the witnesses collected has already commenced," he said. MORE