Wearing Indian Army fatigues, the killers arrived into the village in military vehicles in two groups at separate ends of the village where the two gurdwaras were located, while the villagers had been celebrating the Hola Mahalla festival. They ordered them to line up in front of the gurdwaras and opened fire, killing thirty-six people. A Mohammad Suhail Malik of Sialkot, Pakistan confessed while in Indian custody about participating in the attacks at the direction of Lashkar-e-Taiba in an interview with Barry Bearak of The New York Times although Bearak questioned the authenticity of the confession. Suhail Malik was a nephew of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was however later acquitted of these charges by a Delhi court. In 2010, the Lashkar-e-Taiba associate David Headley, who was arrested in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, reportedly informed the National Investigation Agency that the LeT carried out the Chittisinghpura massacre. He is said to have identified an LeT militant named Muzzamil as part of the group which carried out the killings apparently to create communal tension just before Clinton's visit.
Aftermath
The massacre was a turning point in the Kashmir issue, where Sikhs had usually been spared from militant violence. After the massacre hundreds of Kashmiri Sikhs gathered in Jammu shouting anti Pakistan and anti Muslim slogans, criticising the Indian government for failing to protect the villagers, and demanding retaliation. Five days after the killing, the Indian army stopped and killed five people near Anantnag, claiming they were the Pakistani perpetrators of the Chittisinghpora massacre. A subsequent government inquiry revealed that they were all local villagers with no relation with the massacre. In 2005, Sikh organizations such as the Bhai Kanahiya Jee Nishkam Seva Society demanded a deeper state inquiry into the details of the massacre and for the inquiry to be made public. The state government ordered an inquiry into the massacre.
Clinton controversy
The massacre coincided with the visit of United States presidentBill Clinton to India. In an introduction to a book written by Madeleine Albright titled The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs , she accused "Hindu Militants" of perpetrating the act. This error created a major incident, with both Hindu and Sikh groups expressing outrage at the inaccuracy. Clinton's office did not return calls seeking comment or clarification. The publishers, Harper Collins, later issued a correction, acknowledging "a failure in the fact-checking process".
