Posted on 05/14/2002 5:01:37 AM PDT by Aaron_A
Suspected Islamic Militants Storm Indian Army Camp
JAMMU, India (Reuters) - Suspected Islamic militants opened fire on bus passengers and attacked an army camp in Indian Kashmir (news - web sites) on Tuesday, killing nearly 30 men, women and children before being gunned down, the army said.
It was the bloodiest attack in nearly eight months in the region, the focus of a military buildup between India and Pakistan, and coincided with a visit to New Delhi by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca to try to ease tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Indian analysts said the raid would increase pressure on the Indian government to act against Pakistan-based Muslim rebels, but said they did not expect an immediate military response
Three militants, wearing army uniforms, opened fire inside a bus near the Ratnachak army camp killing several passengers. They ran off the bus and into the camp to an area housing family quarters, workshops and canteens.
Many of the victims were wives and children of soldiers stationed at the base about 15 km (10 miles) south of Jammu, winter capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state.
The militants, suspected members of Islamic groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, were killed four hours after the start of the attack, in which 32 people, including the three raiders, died, an army spokesman in New Delhi said.
"Rebels in combat dress alighted from a (public) transport bus near the army camp after opening indiscriminate fire," a defense spokesman told Reuters in Jammu.
"After storming the gate, they injured the gate-keeper and after that they barged into the family quarters.
"They had AK 47s, they were firing all around, they had hand grenades, they had explosives. Once they reached inside the house, they wired the houses with the explosives," Major-General Mohan Pandey told reporters.
Television pictures of the bus showed shattered windows, holes blown in the side, and blood and broken glass on the floor.
"We were asked to get off the bus and as we were getting down they started firing," one of the passengers told Star News Television. "Some died, some were wounded. Three women were killed including my wife."
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but police said they suspected members of the Pakistan-based militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad, who have launched suicide attacks on army installations in the past.
It was the bloodiest attack in Kashmir since 38 people were killed in a suicide raid on the state assembly in October.
INDIA-PAKISTAN TENSION
About a dozen Muslim separatist groups are battling Indian forces in Kashmir. At least 33,000 people have been killed since the revolt erupted in 1989. Separatists say the death toll is at least 80,000.
India accuses Pakistan of stoking the rebellion by arming militants and sending them across the border. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it provides only moral support for what it calls a legitimate Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
Analysts said the attack on the army camp would increase pressure on the Indian government to retaliate against Pakistan-based militants, but stopped short of predicting immediate military action.
"Speaking personally, I don't think the chances are very high of a punitive mission but the pressures are growing on the government to do something," said defense analyst Bharat Karnad.
"The army is completely mobilized, the hardware is ready, the systems are all in place. It would be easy to mount some kind of action," he said.
India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, have been locked in a tense standoff since a December 13 raid on India's parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistani-based Kashmiri rebels.
More than a million men have massed along the border, backed by warplanes, tanks and missile batteries.
Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf banned several militant groups after the attack on the Indian parliament, including the two blamed by India for the raid.
Musharraf's spokesman said on Tuesday it was too early to say who was responsible for the attack on the army camp, but said there was clear frustration with Indian rule in Kashmir.
"We know that the atrocities of the Indian armed forces on Kashmiris inside Indian-occupied Kashmir...have increased so much they were killing 10 to 15 Kashmiris every day," Major-General Rashid Qureshi told Reuters.
"Obviously that would give rise to frustration and anger."
For weeks, analysts and diplomats have been warning of a rise in tension as the snow melts in the Himalayan mountain passes, making it easier for militants to cross into Indian Kashmir.
"It's only going to escalate. More and more infiltrations will take place now that the snows have melted," said political analyst Inder Malhotra.
And during the five months of army deployment, analysts have also said one more big militant attack -- like the raid on the army camp -- could trigger military action.
"Whether this will lead to war or a retaliatory strike is a very complex question," said Kalim Bhadadur, South Asia expert at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"It would be too premature to say that because three terrorists have attacked a military camp...that the government will respond militarily. But the army is deployed."
India controls about 45 percent of Muslim-majority Kashmir, Pakistan a third and China the rest.
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