Asia-Pacific

At least 22 Hindus massacred in Kashmir

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-01 13:36

Suspected Islamic militants shot dead at least 22 Hindus in two small villages in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday, officials said.

The massacre, one of the biggest in recent months, took place just days before Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holds talks with Kashmiri separatists in New Delhi and later travels to the violent region for a "roundtable" conference with Kashmiris.

"We have a report of a massacre in which 22 people were killed. We are waiting for details," Vijay Bakaya, Kashmir's top official, told Reuters.

The militants struck the Hindu-dominated remote mountainous villages in Doda district, some 170 km (100 miles) from Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital, early on Monday, police said.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Five people, among eight wounded, were in critical condition.

"In the first village they killed 12 people and in the second they killed 10," a police official said. "After killing the villagers, they fled under cover of darkness."

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since an Islamic insurgency began in 1989 against Indian rule. Thousands of Hindus have fled the state over the years.

One injured man told Sahara News television channel over the telephone that armed militants had come in the night and asked people to come out of their homes.

"They took one man from each house. The others they told to go inside. They said they would set us free later. After going some distance, they started beating us up and then opened fire," the witness said.

Army and police have reached the spot and a search and a combing operation had begun, the police official said. It was not immediately known if women and children were among the dead.