Women killed over 'dress code'
cnn.com
Staff and wires
Friday, December 20, 2002 Posted: 1:53 AM EST (0653 GMT)
PARAOTT, Indian-controlled Jammu -- Suspected militants entered a home in a Kashmiri village and brutally killed three young women, just days after posters ordered females to wear a veil.
The attackers slit the throats of two of the women, both aged 21, and shot the third, police officials in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region said on Friday.
While the motive of the attack is still unclear, one police official told Reuters news agency it could be related to an order for women not to step outside their homes without a veil.
"There is a possibility these killings are linked with the diktat on dress code. We have sent a police party," the police official said.
The posters, which appeared in Rajori town and nearby villages, were signed by little known group Lashkar Jabbar.
More than a dozen guerrilla groups are fighting Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir, which is at the heart of more than 50 years of hostility with Pakistan.
A few groups in the past have ordered women in the Kashmir valley to wear a veil, but the order was largely ignored.
Paraott is near the town of Thanamandi in Rajori district of Jammu. |
