Suspected Islamic militants shot dead at least 35 Hindus in
Indian-administered Kashmir ahead of crucial talks between Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Kashmiri separatists, officials and police said on Monday.
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An injured man is taken to a hospital in the
northern Indian city of Jammu May 1, 2006. Suspected Islamic militants
shot dead at least 22 Hindus in two small villages in Indian-administered
Kashmir on Monday, officials said.
[Reuters]
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In one of the bloodiest massacres in recent months, militants struck two
remote Hindu-dominated mountainous villages in Doda district, some 170 km (100
miles) northeast of Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital, early on Monday, and gunned
down 22 Hindus.
On the same day, bullet-ridden bodies of nine Hindus were recovered from
neighboring Udhampur district. Police said the dead were Hindu cattle herdsmen
reportedly kidnapped by suspected militants late on Sunday.
Four of them were found dead on Sunday itself.
No militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Prime Minister Singh, who is due to meet Kashmiri separatists on Wednesday
and would travel to the violent region later this month for a Kashmir
"roundtable," condemned the attack.
"People of Kashmir have rejected and rebuffed terrorists repeatedly," Singh
said.
Witnesses of the Doda attack told a chilling story of a midnight knock
followed by bursts of gunshots.
"It was a late hour knock," Rakesh Kumar said. "I told my brother not to open
the door but he didn't listen and was whisked away to a nearby spot where he was
shot."
He said the militants, some dressed in police uniforms while others in
traditional Kashmiri dress -- a long, loose shirt and trousers -- split
themselves into two groups before opening fire.
"They attacked two localities simultaneously," he said, adding there are more
than 500 families live in the area, a majority of them Hindus.
Gulzar Ahmed Qureshi, a top Doda official, told Reuters the villagers were
asked to assemble outside the house of the village head and later shot dead.
"Yes, they are all Hindus," he added.
One wounded man told Sahara News television channel over the telephone that
militants "took one man from each house."
"The others they told to go inside. They said they would set us free later.
After going some distance, they started beating us up and then opened fire," the
witness said.
The Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest Kashmiri militant group, denied any role
in the attack.
"We strongly condemn these killings which seem to be a conspiracy of Indian
security agencies to malign the ongoing freedom struggle and mujahideens (holy
warriors)," a spokesman of the group said in telephone calls to local newspaper
offices in Srinagar, the state's summer capital.
HINDUS FLEE
Militant violence has increased in Kashmir in recent weeks with the onset of
summer when snow melts in the region's mountain passes, allowing easier movement
of militants between the two zones of Kashmir split between nuclear rivals India
and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both.
Tens of thousands have been killed in the scenic Himalayan region since an
Islamic revolt began in 1989 against Indian rule. Thousands of Hindus have fled
the state over the years.
Overall violence in the region has fallen due to a peace process between
Islamabad and New Delhi which began in 2004.
In a bid to take the peace process forward, Prime Minister Singh is due to
meet leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an amalgam of two dozen
Kashmiri separatist parties.
Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq condemned the attack, terming it "an act
of terrorism." The Singh-Hurriyat talks are being seen as an ice-breaker ahead
of Singh's "roundtable" with Kashmiris in Srinagar.
"This has not gone well with people who don't want the peace process to
succeed," said Kashmir's chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.