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May 22, 2006
India: Islamists Attack Rally In Kashmir - Five Dead
News from the UK Daily Telegraph, from Avisa Nordland and Bahrain's Gulf Daily News reports that yesterday a rally in Srinigar in Indian Kashmir was attacked by Muslim terrorists.
The rally was being held in a park by the ruling Congress party when two assailants, dressed as policemen started firing on the crowd and throwing grenades. Five people (six according to GDT) were killed among the crowd of 3,000 before the attackers were shot dead. The rally was being held to observe the anniversary of the murder (by a Tamil woman suicide bomber) of Rajeev Gandhi, the former Indian prime minister.
Two policemen and three civilians were killed, and three high ranking police were wounded. There appear to have been at least 17 wounded civilians. At least two grenades were thrown by the Muslims.
The groups Lashkar-e-Tayba (Lashkar-e-Toiba) and Al Mansoorian claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pirzada Mohammed Sayeed, who is leader of the Comgress party in Indian Kashmir, said that the attack was "an attempt by militants to disrupt next week's peace talks." These will be taking place between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and some Kashmiri separatist groups who do not support violence. The Federal government of India said the talks will go ahead as planned.
We reported on May 1 of an upsurge of violence in Indian Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir state) aimed at Hindus by Muslim separatists. 35 Hindus were killed.
The violence in the state continued. Last weekend on Saturday 13 May, a grenade attack was made against a Hindu rally in Doda, southern Kashmir. Two people were killed and 23 injured, stated Al Jazeera.
Last Friday (May 12), according to AKI and Al Jazeera threats of suicide attacks caused cable TV channels to curtail operations. The threats had been made by four joint groups, the Al-Badr Mujahidin, Al-Medina Regiment, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Harkat-ul-Mujahidin. They were complaining about "obscenity" on cable TV.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 22, 2006 7:09 AM
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