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Hindus Killed in Latest Bout of Kashmir Violence
SRINAGAR, India, July 22 (News Agencies) - At least 15 Hindus were massacred in Indian Kashmir when suspected Kashmiri activists
dragged them out of their homes and shot them dead at point blank range, Indian police claimed
Sunday.
News agencies reported that the victims were gunned down late Saturday night in the remote village of Paddar, some 240 kilometers (149 miles) south from this Kashmiri summer capital of Srinagar.
There was no independent confirmation of the report. So far none of Kashmir's two dozen Muslim resistance groups have claimed responsibility for the attack in the remote Doda district. The police, however, blamed the attack on Muslim resistance activists.
Officials said five others were seriously injured in the attack and were taken to a hospital in the town of Kisthwar in Doda district.
The alleged shooting was the most serious of a series of violent incidents in the disputed Himalayan region since the breakdown of the recent Indo-Pakistan summit.
Police Inspector-General, R.V. Raju told the French news agency AFP from Kashmir's winter capital Jammu that the victims had been dragged out of their homes and shot dead at point blank range.
One survivor said that the gunmen had begun firing indiscriminately.
"The militants after bringing out the men from their houses began firing randomly at them from all directions," said injured survivor Dipu.
Dipu could not specify the number of attackers who stormed Paddar and only said a "group of militants" staged the massacre.
The police said the death toll could be higher.
"We are trying to ascertain the facts but going by the witness accounts its seems the casualty figures could be higher," a senior police official told AFP.
"A clear picture would emerge only after the police party returns," he added.
The official also said security was being reinforced in the Hindu-majority regions of Doda and Kishtwar to prevent a possible backlash against local Muslims after the massacre.
In a separate overnight attack in Doda district, unidentified gunmen abducted five Hindus from their homes in Charoo village and took them to an undisclosed location, the police said, adding a search was on to rescue them.
The five were members of a state-appointed armed contingent drawn from Kashmiri villages to combat activists, a state police spokesman here said.
Meanwhile, the police on Sunday said five people -- including two Muslim activists -- were killed in unrelated overnight violance in Kashmir.
The upsurge in violence came as a pilgrimage by thousands of Hindus in Kashmir resumed amid unprecedented security Sunday after being halted when two bombs exploded en route early Saturday, killing 13 people and injuring 17.
The pilgrimage had been halted after the blast along the route at Sheshnag, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Pahalgam.
Pahalgam, 99 kilometres (62 miles) from Srinagar, is a camp for pilgrims before they embark upon the rugged trek through the mountains to reach a cave-shrine of the Hindu god Shiva.
Indian forces blamed the attacks on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba rebel group.
Two policemen were also killed in the blast.
Immediately after the explosions, a gunbattle erupted between the attackers and troops, which left five Hindus and four Muslim porters dead. Another pilgrim later died of injuries and a Muslim activist was also shot dead.
The incident came within days of the failure of a summit between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf which foundered over the Kashmir issue.
Prominent militant groups had warned they would step up activities in Kashmir following the summit.
The Muslim separatist insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which New Delhi alleges is sponsored by Pakistan in the form of a "proxy war", has claimed at least 35,000 lives since its launch in 1989.
Pakistan, which puts the death toll at 70,000, denies the charges of "cross-border terrorism" but extends open moral and diplomatic support to what it describes as the Muslim-majority Kashmiris' right to self-determination.
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