M A I N   N E W S

Lashkar men gun down six of family

Jammu, January 1
An infant and an eight-year-old boy were among the six persons of a Hindu family killed in a gruesome massacre by gun wielding Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in a village in the border district of Poonch, official sources said today.

In the second attack against minorities in the last three days in the Rajouri-Poonch belt, an unspecified number of militants wearing combat fatigues gunned down their victims after swooping on the home of an ex-serviceman in a remote mountainous village, Mangnard, a little after midnight today.

The militants first cordoned off the village and barged into the house of Baldev Raj after breaking open the front door, the sources said.

They fired indiscriminately on the inmates of the house, killing five members of Baldev’s family and seriously wounding two others.

The sources said Lashkar militants were behind the massacre.

One of the seriously wounded Ashok Kumar died on way to a Poonch hospital while an injured woman was being airlifted to GMC hospital here.

The sources said Baldev Raj was severely tortured with sharp-edged weapons before being gunned down by the militants.

Suspected Lashkar militants killed four members of a Hindu family in Kathal area in Rajouri district last Saturday.

Army troops in nearby areas rushed to the scene after the attack. The five deceased have been identified as Baldev Raj, Chatarpal Singh, Machnali Devi, eight-year-old Kuldeep Kumar and five-month-old Sunil Kumar.

The apparent aim of the massacre is to terrorise the local people and divert Army’s attention from borders to civilian inhabited areas, the sources said.

Meanwhile, a bandh called to protest against the killings of six Hindus in Mangnard village crippled normal life in border towns of Poonch and Rajouri today even as people refused to cremate the bodies and held protest demonstrations, official sources said.

As the bodies of the six Hindus reached Geeta Bhavan in Poonch town from the village, all shops and business establishments downed the shutters and vehicular traffic went off the roads.

People, who had assembled at Geeta Bhavan shouted anti-state government and anti-police slogans and said they would not cremate the bodies until Home Minister L.K. Advani or some other central minister visited them.

In Rajouri, Sunderbani, Kalakote and Mendhar, people observed partial bandhs in protest against the killing.

However, the situation was well under control, the sources said.

SRINAGAR: Militants killed four persons, kidnapped another and attacked an Army camp while the security forces gunned down four ultras and recovered arms and ammunition in the Kashmir valley overnight.

An official spokesman said an encounter took place between militants and the security forces during a search operation at Daresh Bagh Pattan village in Baramula district today in which three unidentified ultras were killed.

Another militant was killed by the security forces at Kokernag in south Kashmir on Monday.

According to official sources militants shot dead Abdul Aziz and Mohammad Iqbal in Badgam district on Monday night. PTI, UNI

Five militants killed

Jammu, January 1
Five heavily armed militants, including two of Jaish-e-Mohammad, were killed when Army foiled two infiltration bids near the Line of Control in the Rajouri sector, defence sources said today.

The militants were identified as Abu Baker and Abu Wahid. Two AK rifles, nine magazines and six grenades were seized. PTI