New Delhi, July 9 : 26/11 handler Abu Jundal has told Indian interrogators that the Chattisinghpora massacre in 2000 in which 35 Sikhs were killed was orchestrated by the Lashkar-e-Toiba group, Times of India reported.
For years, the Army was blamed for the massacre, but the revelation by Abu Jundal has changed the scenario. Jundal said, the massacre was planned and executed by LeT's operational hed Muzammil Butt.
Abu Jundal, according to the TOI report, told interrogators that it was Muzammil, then operating in Kashmir, who along with dozen men in Army fatigues went to the village in Kashmir's Anantnag district on March 25, 2000 and killed 35 Sikhs.
The aim was to create communal tension in the Valley on the eve of then US president Bill Clinton's visit to India and also malign the Indian Army.
Sources said Jundal's interrogation had revealed that Muzammil, along with his associates, drew all the men of the village out of their homes and asked them to gather near the village gurdwara. The Lashkar men then shot 35 Sikhs in cold blood.
The revelation is significant given that sections of Kashmiri political parties and civil rights activists in the country have always asserted that it was the handiwork of the Indian Army.
Only last month, Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani demanded an international probe into the matter.
Sources said Jundal's revelation has confirmed what agencies had always suspected based on credible information. However, no investigation into the incident has yet conclusively proved the hand of LeT.
Investigating agencies had arrested two suspected Lashkar militants Mohd Suhail and Waseem Ahmed, who hailed from Sialkot and Gujranwala in Pakistan for the massacre. Both are still on trial.
According to sources, Muzammil, who home minister P Chidambaram recently said had replaced Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as LeT's operational head, was responsible for several more killings in the Valley and this was something he admitted to several of his LeT colleagues.
Jundal was known to be close to Muzammil, who was part of the Karachi-based control room that directed the 26/11 attacks.
An official in the know of Jundal's interrogation said, "This was something agencies always had an idea of. This information had also come up during the interrogation of David Coleman Headley.
"Jundal is being quizzed on all the information available with the agencies and is confirming what he thinks agencies already know of. He is revealing little new information as yet."
The revelation will be little relief for Army which has been in the dock for several extra-judicial killings, including the Pathribal encounter, post-Chhattisinghpora massacre.
Until agencies find corroborative evidence to buttress this claim, the revelation will have little value in a court of law.
