ISLAMABAD, 17 September 2003 — A top militant group fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir said yesterday it plans to target Indian leaders in suicide bombings.
The warning came from Jaish-e-Mohammad, a group that India has blamed for several terror attacks, including the Dec. 13, 2001 raid on India’s Parliament, which killed 14 people.
The group’s spokesman Wali Hassan Baba, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, declined to reveal the specific targets, but said their deaths would be “shocking for India.”
“The purpose of killing these people is to avenge the martyrdom of Ghazi Baba,” he said, referring to the group’s commander, who was killed by Indian security forces on Aug. 30 in a gunbattle in Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s portion of Kashmir.
“We have formed suicide bombing squads to kill top personalities. These killings will break India’s backbone.”
Hassan Baba said he was speaking from Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
Jaish-e-Mohammad was among five militant groups banned by Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf shortly after the attack on India’s Parliament.
Jaish-e-Mohammad is one of more than a dozen militant groups that have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989 for Indian-controlled Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan.
More than 63,000 people have been killed in that period. India accuses Pakistan of backing the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the two countries have fought two of their three wars over the region.
On Sunday, Jaish-e-Mohammad’s new leader, Sehrai Baba, claimed responsibility for the death on Saturday of Kuka Parrey, a former rebel leader who changed sides in 1994 to support Indian efforts to crush rebel groups.
