Eight dead in attacks on Kashmir temples

9.45am

JAMMU, India - At least eight people died when suspected Islamic rebel gunmen attacked two Hindu temples in Indian Kashmir, as rebels warned a new state government the long anti-Indian revolt was not dead, police said.

Four hours after the first temple was attacked in the 150-year-old Raghunath temple complex, gunfire continued at another temple about 180m away in the heart of Jammu, winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state.

Five civilians, a security officer and a rebel were killed in the first raid Sunday evening and another officer was killed in the second, police said. At least 47 people were injured.

It was not clear if the ongoing battle at the second temple involved the second of two gunmen involved in the first attack.

Kashmir has been the trigger for two of three wars between India and Pakistan and was at the heart of a military build-up that brought the nuclear powers close to another in June.

More than 40 people died in a spate of attacks over the past 48 hours, including the temple victims and 12 people killed in a land mine blast which rebels said was a message to the state's new leader who has vowed to bring peace to the disputed region.

It was the bloodiest day since the government took power.

"It was a response to chief minister Mufti Mohammad Syed's assertion that militancy was on its last legs," two guerrilla groups said in a brief statement published in Kashmir's main newspaper, Greater Kashmir.

The two pro-Pakistan groups -- Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-e-Jehad Islami -- claimed responsibility for the blast. The dead were six soldiers, three women and two children, all relatives of soldiers, and the bus driver.

Outside the temple in Jammu, at least one bitter onlooker blamed the conciliatory approach of the new state government for the latest Hindu killings in India's only Muslim-majority state.

"Mufti is responsible for this incident because he has been releasing militants," said the man. "There has been a sudden surge in violence in the last three-four days."

Syed has freed leading political prisoners as part of efforts to open wide-ranging peace talks.

Although still pro-Delhi, Syed's new coalition ended decades of heavily pro-Indian rule and has raised hopes for a change after a watershed state poll in September and October dumped a hard-line party that is part of the ruling federal coalition.

Syed has vowed to bring a healing touch to the Himalayan state and he said the 13-year rebellion was on its last legs.

A hard-line group, Al-Umar Mujahideen, fighting for Kashmir's merger with neighbouring Pakistan, called for a two-day strike from Tuesday to protest against the detention of its chief in Islamabad last week.

Al-Umar Mujahideen chief Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar was one of three militants freed from jail by Indian authorities in December 1999 in exchange for hundreds of passengers from a hijacked Indian Airlines plane flown to Afghanistan.

"Any vehicle found on the roads, any shop found open anywhere shall be set ablaze," Rafiq Ahmad Dar, the group's chief commander, told Current News Service, a local news agency.

Dar also warned leaders of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, not to visit the main Jamia mosque in Srinagar.

"If any leader does not heed the warning and dares to venture in the (Jamia) mosque he shall be shot dead," Dar said without giving reasons for the threat.

The ancient and massive brick-and-timber mosque is a rallying point for anti-Indian sentiment and draws hundreds of worshippers every Friday, from beggars to political leaders.

Separatists routinely hand out leaflets during the Friday prayers.

Mostly Hindu India accuses Muslim Pakistan of backing the revolt against its rule and says Islamabad has not done enough to stop guerrillas crossing into Indian Kashmir.

Pakistan says it only gives moral and diplomatic support to the "legitimate freedom struggle" of the Kashmiri people.

- REUTERS

Further reading
Feature: The Kashmir conflict