இந்தியா: இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகள் குண்டுகளோடு தாக்கியதில் 9 இந்துக்கள் பலி

இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகள் குண்டுகளோடு தாக்கியதில் 9 இந்துக்கள் பலியானார்கள்
நடந்திருப்பது காஷ்மீரில்
Nine dead in fresh Kashmir violence: officials
1 day ago

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) — At least nine people including women and young children were killed in fresh outbreaks of violence in Indian Kashmir on Thursday, officials said.

A grenade attack by suspected Islamic militants in the region's main city, Srinagar, left a woman and her four children dead and 30 others wounded, police said. The victims were mainly migrant workers and their families.

In a separate attack, militants executed a former rebel and three of his family members -- including his wife, daughter and four-year-old nephew -- in an apparent revenge killing, officials said.

Police said the murdered man, Ghulam Hussain, was a former member of the disputed region's main militant group, the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahedin. He had surrendered in 2004, earning himself a place on a militant hit-list.

He was killed in Doda district, about 170 kilometres (105 miles) south of Srinagar, hours after a separate grenade attack also left two policemen and a civilian wounded.

The insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir, which began in 1989, has left more than 43,000 people dead.

Levels of violence have steadily declined since India and Pakistan, who each hold the region in part but claim it in full, launched a peace process in 2004.

But the region has again witnessed a sharp upsurge in violence in recent weeks, including a roadside bomb attack on an Indian army bus on Saturday that killed nine soldiers and wounded 16 others.

On Monday, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said the peace process with Pakistan was "under stress."

He cited an increase in militant infiltrations into the Indian part of Kashmir, and repeated allegations that "elements" in Islamabad were behind a suicide attack against the Indian embassy in Kabul earlier this month.

Tensions have also mounted in Jammu, Kashmir's Hindu-majority winter capital, with authorities imposing an indefinite curfew -- which came into force at dawn -- to contain protests following an apparent suicide at a religious protest.

Police said a demonstrator swallowed poison and died after a speech on Wednesday denouncing a decision by Kashmir's state government to go back on a move to allocate land in the mountainous region to Hindu pilgrims.

Kumar's family and friends say he "sacrificed" his life for the cause.

"The district administration has imposed a curfew to prevent the mobilisation of a large number of people and in view of the tense situation in Jammu and several adjoining areas," top Jammu police official K. Rajendra said.

Police said they had fired shots in the air and used tear gas to tackle fresh protests, and six policemen were reported to have been stripped and beaten by demonstrators.

The Kashmir government decision to provide land to a Hindu trust sparked more than a week of rioting by furious Muslims in and around Srinagar that left six dead and hundreds injured.

On July 11, Kashmir was put under federal rule following the collapse of the state government because of the land row.