Chinu. Just some more muslims at play.....
More Hindus Join Kashmir Pilgrimage Despite Raid
By REUTERS
Filed at 6:24 a.m. ET
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - More than 2,000 Hindu faithful joined an annual pilgrimage in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday, undeterred by a deadly attack on the holy trek by suspected Islamic militants.
The pilgrims arrived in Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, and were bound for Pahalgam, base camp for an arduous 30-mile hike to a cave shrine in the Himalayas.
``Another batch of 2,082 yatris (pilgrims) came here. With this, the number of yatris has touched 90,000,'' a spokesman for the pilgrimage told Reuters.
In Tuesday's dawn raid on a camp near Pahalgam, militants emerged from a pine forest, hurled grenades and fired automatic weapons, killing nine Hindus and wounding 31 others as many slept in tents.
Security men killed one of the attackers, believed to number around three or four. The others fled.
``I'm not afraid. Whatever is to happen is to happen,'' 50-year-old school teacher Pankha Khanta said before setting off from Chandanwari, 10 miles from the site of the raid.
The disputed Kashmir region is at the heart of a military stand-off between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. It is where Indian authorities have fought a nearly 13-year-old Muslim separatist revolt against their rule.
The four-day trek from Pahalagam takes pilgrims along icy streams and through frozen mountain passes to worship a nine-foot phallus-like ice form they believe symbolizes Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
No group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's raid but New Delhi blamed it on an offshoot of a Pakistan-based, militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Pakistan government has condemned the assault as a ``terrorist attack.''
Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah renewed a call to destroy guerrilla training camps which India says exist in Pakistan-controlled territory -- a charge denied by Islamabad.
``Destruction of training camps across the border is the only alternative to uproot terror,'' he said in a statement. He did not say whether India or Pakistan should destroy the camps.
DEADLIEST RAID
Tuesday's raid was the deadliest in Muslim-majority Kashmir since guerrillas massacred 28 Hindu slum-dwellers last month.
Indian officials said the attacks were part of a militant drive to derail the Kashmir elections that were announced last week.
Political analysts in India expected an increase in the number of attacks before the staggered vote that is scheduled between mid-September to early October.
But, they said, New Delhi was determined that the elections would proceed because they are viewed as a way to restore peace and bolter the legitimacy of its rule.
Many political groups are refusing to take part and at least one militant group has threatened to kill anyone taking part in the elections.
``The perpetrators of this kind of mindless violence would want nothing better than a precipitate Indian response to the latest incident,'' said The Times of India in an editorial. ``It's all the more important therefore we do not allow ourselves to overreact,'' it said, adding the elections must proceed.
India has mobilized a 12,000-member security force along the 240-mile route to protect pilgrims but officials said it was impossible to keep the entire trail safe.
``The route is treacherous and long, which gives militants an advantage,'' a security official said.
Last year, Muslim militants killed 29 people taking part in the pilgrimage that runs from July 19 until August 22. The pilgrims range from ash-smeared Hindu monks to businessmen to elderly women who are ferried in lawn chairs by muscled porters.
India has demanded Pakistan halt militant infiltration from its soil into Indian Kashmir as a condition for ending the seven-month standoff sparked by an attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Pakistan says it has stopped all incursions by rebels seeking to join the separatist revolt in Jammu and Kashmir. It seeks implementation of 1948-49 U.N. resolutions for a plebiscite to determine whether Kashmiris wish to join India or Pakistan.
nytimes.com |
