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Five Muslims, Two Hindu Priests Killed in India-Occupied Kashmir
JAMMU, India, Aug 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Five members of a Muslim trader's family were massacred and two Hindu priests killed in a surge of violence in Indian-ruled Kashmir, officials said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Indian army deployed in Kashmir said it would strike out at top separatist commanders in a strategy to dull the Muslims' fighting capabilities in the disputed territory.
On Tuesday, unidentified men attacked the home of a Muslim trader in the district of Poonch, 120 miles northwest of Jammu city, killing his mother, father, wife and two children.
Four gunmen raided the home of Basaharat Shah and sprayed bullets into the family, army brigadier P.C. Das said.
Unconfirmed reports said separatist fighters had targeted Shah for cutting food supplies to local Muslim activists, under pressure from the Indian army.
Poonch was one of the three southern Kashmir districts that were declared "disturbed areas" earlier this month following a separatist attack on the main train station in the city of Jammu; the attack left 10 dead and 30 injured.
Tuesday's massacre of the trader's family came after suspected Islamic activists killed two priests in a temple in the Pooch town of Surankode on Monday night, police said.
The bodies were discovered Tuesday by worshippers at the temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess, Kali.
Poonch police chief Kamal Saini said authorities believed members of the hard-line separatist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba, were responsible for the killings.
Saini said the attack appeared to have been carried out to avenge the killing of more than 250 Muslim activists in the Poonch and Rajouri districts over the past two months, during which police say they killed the group's top leaders.
"We have a direct confrontation with the Lashkar-e-Taiba as we have killed their top leadership," he said. "That is why they are creating such problems."
None of Kashmir's two-dozen resistance groups have so far claimed responsibility for either incident.
In Doda, which adjoins Poonch, army commanders told journalists Tuesday that the military would soon launch "surgical strikes" designed to neutralize adversaries.
"We will soon launch surgical operations to eliminate foreign mercenaries, and their commanders in particular, and other militants in general," Brigadier G. D. Bakshi said in the region of Kishtwar.
"A plan has been devised to singularly target the top brass of foreign mercenaries under a special mission apart from normal counter-insurgency operations... we will strike at their roots now and pin them down," he went on to say.
In separate incidents, two Hindu civilians were murdered in Pamrod township, near Surankode and police gunned down two Muslim commanders overnight. In addition, two army soldiers died in cross-border firing from Pakistan.
Since January, Indian forces have killed 1,059 people throughout Kashmir; and359 Indian troops have died and 872 more have been injured in clashes.
India accuses Pakistan of aiding and abetting "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries and claimed by both.
Pakistan denies the charge and says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris' struggle for self-determination.
More than 35,000 people have died in Kashmir since 1989 when Muslim combatants launched a resistance movement against Indian rule in the Himalayan territory.
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