Terrorists kill 20 Hindus in Kashmir (India)

At least 20 Hindus are feared killed by terrorists in Kulhan area in Doda district, about 200 km north-east of Jammu in the predominantly Muslim state Jammu and Kashmir of India late Sunday night, reports The Times of India. Terrorists showered bullets and also used sharp-edged weapons to kill the victims who included women and children. The police have confirmed the incident, on the basis of the reports of terrorists having shot dead some people belonging to the minority community in the hill villages of Jammu region, but did not have exact details on the number of the killed. “We have sent parties to verify the details. The areas is hilly and far off, it will take a while to confirm the exact details,” Deputy Inspector General of Police said. These killings have come close on the heels of the killings of four Hindu shepherds in Lallalan Galla, a mountainous pass in Udhampur district in the same state of India on Sunday. The fate of three other shepherds is still not known. The killings of Hindus started in Jammu region in August 1993, when for the first time 16 Hindu bus passengers were segregated from others, and shot dead near Kishtwar in Doda district. This trend continued till late 2002. Thereafter, there were a few isolated incidents, till the back-to-back killings this weekend. The Reuters, a news agency reports that video of the beheadings were being sold openly in Pakistan. The titles included “Slaughter of Americans in Iraq”, “Slaughter of Traitors in Afghanistan” and “Taliban Celebrations”…. The video seller didn’t have the latest action from the conflict on the Afghan border, but he had something just as gruesome. ‘This one is about the activities of mujahideen in Waziristan and Afghanistan,” the seller said. Dated in December, and supposedly shot in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, it had footage of hangings ordered by an influential militant cleric. The bodies of the hanged men, described as criminals and bandits, were then dragged through the streets by pick-up trucks, in a grisly demonstration of rough justice in an area where the civil administration has, according to tribesmen, collapsed. “The commentary in them makes no bones about who is producing them — they are Pakistani Talibs,” said Samina Ahmed, the Islamabad-based director of the International Crisis Group’s South Asia project. For less than a dollar apiece, some VCDs glorify the exploits of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, promise 72 heavenly virgins for prospective suicide bombers and prescribe beheadings for informers. There are also training films on how to run a guerrilla war, based on Islamist militants fighting the Russian army in Chechnya. Messages in the films put Presidents George W. Bush, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the top of a hit list for would-be assassins in a war against what are described as the American “crusader forces”. Musharraf has banned several militant organisations since 2002, and just last year he launched yet another campaign against groups stirring sectarian violence between Pakistan’s majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shi’ites. But some, such as Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of Companions of the Prophet), keep bouncing back, although they seem to be getting less space to put their message across. The group organised the recent late-night rally in Islamabad but under another name. Jihadi literature, cassettes and VCDs are still available but you will not find it openly. This business has gone underground. It is only sold to known acquaintances or reliable people. It is not too hard to find the leader of one of the most feared militant groups in Pakistan. His message of radical Islam can be heard outside a number of well-known mosques. Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Jaish-i-Mohammad, has kept a low profile for some time because of pressure from Pakistan’s security apparatus, according to some analysts. But outside Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, his voice blares out from speakers from among the stalls selling perfumes, skull caps, religious texts, cassettes and videos after Friday prayers. “Curse on the face of the Americans … Mullah Omar and Osama are the light of our eyes. Whoever tries to steal this light, we will rob them of their peace,” Azhar shouts. “Spread the message of Jihad in every street.” Not all Pakistani preachers of militant jihad are such shadowy figures. Some are members of the National Assembly, representatives of Islamist parties that form the largest opposition block. Maulana Mairaj-ud-Din, a legislator from South Waziristan, is captured on a video titled “Ghadaran”, or Traitors, inciting tribesmen to take up arms for the cause.