Posted on 08/13/2005 12:00:12 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
Jammu, August 13: Islamist militants opened fire on a Hindu family in Kashmir, killing five people and wounding nine others, police said on Saturday.
The shooting took place late on Friday near Chargu, a remote village 65 km east of Jammu, police said.
Security has been tightened in the state ahead of August 15 Independence Day celebrations. Security agencies say there has been a spurt in violence and terrorist incursions into Kashmir from the Pakistani sector, despite some progress in a peace process between the two countries.
Islamic militants kill five in India
JAMMU, India --Suspected Islamic militants raided a remote mountain village in India's Jammu-Kashmir state and attacked two Hindu families as they dined together, killing five people, police said Saturday.
The gun and grenade attack on Friday night in Sajroo village, 100 miles north of Jammu, the state's winter capital, came despite stepped up security in the region to prevent militant attacks ahead of India's Independence Day celebrations Monday.
Five people were killed and nine others were wounded, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Satbir Gupta, adding that three of the injured were in serious conditions. He said the militants attacked the two families as they ate an evening meal together.
The targeted families volunteered for a village defense committee and the government had given them arms to help protect the village.
Gupta said the killers were from one of about a dozen Pakistan-based militant groups that have been fighting security forces in India's portion of Kashmir for the Himalayan region's independence or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. He gave no evidence to back up that claim.
India and Pakistan control separate portions of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebels, but Islamabad denies the charge and says it only provides them with moral and diplomatic support.
More than 66,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the insurgency since it began in 1989.
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Militants kill five in Kashmir Indo-Asian News Service
Jammu, Aug 13 (IANS) Suspected militants killed five people at the home of a village defence committee member in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of India's Independence Day Aug 15, reports reaching here Saturday said.
The incident occurred in Mahore area of Udhampur district Friday night.
Police said the militants struck at the home of Sawan Lal, a village defence committee member, in Chajroo village around 10 p.m., firing indiscriminately and killing the five people on the spot.
Nine people, including two children, were injured. Three of the critically injured were airlifted to Jammu for specialised treatment.
Inspector General of Police S.P. Vaid said the village defence committee members could not offer resistance because they were eating when the militants struck.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is the second time Hindus have been attacked in a month in the Muslim-majority state. Militants had beheaded five members, including a child, of the community in Rajouri district last month.
Vaid said security forces were searching the area.
--Indo-Asian News Service
For clarifications/queries, please contact IANS NEWS DESK at 2616-5778/8546, 2617-3369 or mail us at support@eians.com
I see those "peaceful" moose-limbs are at it again.
Poor Hindus, they have been fighting Muslim radicals for hundreds of years. We have been fighting them for 25 years (4 or 5 officially), and the Liberals here are already tired.
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