SRINAGAR, July 24: A senior police official in occupied Kashmir was suspended and a junior official dismissed for their alleged involvement in fudging DNA samples of five men slain in the wake of a massacre, officials said on Thursday.

Police had claimed the five were involved in the gunning down of 37 Sikh villagers in Chattisinghpora on March 20, 2000, on the eve of a visit of then US president Bill Clinton to New Delhi.

Police had said the five were “foreign militants” of the Lashkar-i-Taiba and were killed in a joint operation by the police and army in the neighbouring village of Pathribal.

But relatives said the five were innocent civilians from Anantnag.

After protests, the held state’s government ordered the bodies to be exhumed for DNA samples, which were said to confirm the police’s claim.

But two Indian forensic agencies confirmed last year that the samples were fudged, and fresh samples taken in April last year confirmed relatives’ allegations the men had nothing to do with the massacre.

“The cabinet has decided to place Farooq Khan under suspension to facilitate his prosecution in the DNA fudging case,” a senior minister said. Khan was then police chief of Anantnag district.

The minister said the cabinet also decided to remove from the service and to prosecute Bashir Ahmed, the then assistant sub-inspector of police.

Official sources say Ahmed was part of the joint force that claimed to have killed the “five foreigners”.

The action against the two came at the recommendation of a committee investigating the controversy set up this year by chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, who was elected last year on promises to bring a “healing touch” to the held state.—AFP