Author: Binoo Joshi/Jammu
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 11, 2001
At least six people, all of them
Hindus, were killed by militants in the mountainous Doda district on Thursday
morning.
According to the police, a group
of armed militants entered the forests in Saazan, a remote village in Doda
district and abducted 11 people, who had gone to the forest to graze their
cattle, at gunpoint.
When the people residing in the
area came to know of the kidnapping, they informed the police about the
incident.
A search party, comprising the local
people and the police searched the forest in a bid to trace the abducted
people.
Late in the afternoon they came
upon six bodies and three critically injured persons who had deep wounds
on their necks. The throats of the six victims had been slit open with
a sharp-edged weapon and their bodies had been beheaded.
The police said that two more people
who had been abducted with the group were still missing and a search was
on to trace them.
Even though no one has claimed responsibility
for the gruesome act, police said they suspected that the militants, active
in the area, are behind the massacre.
The security forces have launched
a massive search operation to catch the killers. This is the third massacre
of Hindus in the mountainous Doda district since November last year, when
the Government announced a unilateral halt to all military offensives against
militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Hindus are a minority
in Doda as they form just 45 per cent of the population in the Muslim-dominated
region.
The Civil Administration in
Doda has ordered tightening of security in major towns like Kishtwar, Bhaderwah
and Doda to prevent any backlash of the incident. The police said that
the situation was under control.
Meanwhile, in another major
incident the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) Secretary
General Maulvi Mohammad Abdullah Tahri, who held talks with the Centre's
interlocutor on Kashmir, K C Pant, in New Delhi last week, escaped an attempt
on his life by unidentified attackers who hurled a grenade at the party's
office.
The grenade fell short of
the intended target and exploded mid-air just outside the party's headquarters
at Kursoo-Rajbagh here at around 2:45 p.m. causing no casualties, official
sources said.
The attack took place when
Mohammad Tahri was engaged in discussions with party workers in the courtyard
of the building.
A caller identifying himself
as the spokesman of the hitherto unknown Al-Hamas Mujahideen claimed that
his outfit was behind the attack. He told a local news agency that the
attack was just a warning to those who try to involve themselves in parleys
with New Delhi on Kashmir. At least two militant outfits, Al-Umer Mujahideen
and Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, took exception to JKDFP's decision to talk to
the Centre and threatened to take action against party chief Mr Shabir
Shah and his close associates. Mr Shah's associates went to Delhi recently
with a letter from Shah to Pant seeking certain clarifications regarding
the talks on the Kashmir issue.
