SRINAGAR, 14 July 2004 — The deputy chief minister of Kashmir escaped an attempt on his life yesterday when a grenade fired at his motorcade by suspected rebels hit an escort car and exploded on the road, police said.
Violence has increased this month in the troubled region in what officials say is a bid by separatist guerrillas to disrupt peace moves between India and Pakistan, which have vowed to resolve peacefully their half-century-old dispute over Kashmir.
Yesterday’s attack came as Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma was on his way to take part in the opening of the Kashmir Valley’s first flyover in Srinagar, the region’s main city, police said.
“The grenade hit the escort vehicle of Mangat Ram Sharma and then exploded on the road injuring three policemen and a girl,” a police officer said.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack, near Budshah Chowk in the heart of the city.
The attack on Sharma, the second-most senior elected official in the troubled region, came hours after a powerful bomb blast killed one person and wounded 12 in Srinagar.
Later in the day, three laborers working at a state-run road construction firm were killed when suspected guerrillas fired at their camp in the Bhaderwah area south of Srinagar, police said.
Another laborer was wounded in the attack, they added.
The attacks coincided with a strike call by moderate political separatists to honor Kashmiri martyrs. It shut down shops and businesses in the city.
Shops and businesses were closed yesterday by a one-day strike to mourn 21 Kashmiris slain 73 years ago by the army of a Hindu king, witnesses said.
The 21 were gunned down by Maharaja Hari Singh’s army on July 13, 1931, while they were staging a protest outside the central jail in Srinagar against the king’s autocratic rule.
Both separatists and many pro-Indian groups observe July 13 as “Martyrs’ Day”, with yesterday’s strike being sponsored by both the moderate and hard-line factions of Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
It was supported by several other separatist groups. Shops, businesses, schools and offices were all shut in Srinagar while little traffic plied the roads.
The strike affected normal life in some other towns in Kashmir’s Muslim-majority areas, although the Hindu-dominated Jammu region in the south of the state was unaffected, witnesses said.
In 1947, Hari Singh held out for an independent Kashmir as the British ended colonial rule and divided the subcontinent between Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan.
But the Hindu maharaja acceded to India after Pakistan-backed tribal forces raided the state. The Himalayan region remains divided and bitterly disputed between Pakistan and India, which both now have nuclear weapons.
Kashmir has since 1989 been in the throes of an insurgency to end Indian rule that has left more than 40,000 people dead. Separatists put the death toll between 80,000 and 100,000.
Local newspapers yesterday splashed photographs of the massacre on their front pages, reviving memories for some.
“It was a fight for justice and freedom,” said 90-year-old Ghulam Mohiudin, who also urged India and Pakistan to resolve the issue of Kashmir in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiris.
“My life is almost over. I want to die with the impression that the Kashmir issue will be resolved and my sons and grandsons will live in peace,” he said.
Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed paid tribute to the dead.
Meanwhile, separatists are unlikely to hold talks with the Indian government at least until the end of August, pushing back New Delhi’s plan for discussions this month on the insurrection.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Kashmir’s chief cleric and the interim chief of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, told Reuters late on Monday that the group would assess the progress of India-Pakistan peace moves at the end of August.
“Personally, I’d say yes,” he said when asked if Hurriyat planned to wait until that time to agree to resume the talks with New Delhi, which were being held parallel to the India-Pakistan peace process launched last year.
India and Pakistan started a peace process last year to help end the Kashmir row.
Alongside, New Delhi has held two rounds of talks with the Hurriyat since January. The new Congress party-led coalition government, which came to power in May, has vowed to continue the process and has called for a third round in July.
“Things should be clearer by the end of August when the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan review the peace process,” Farooq said.
He said the two neighbors should build trust in Kashmir by agreeing to confidence-building measures like starting a bus service linking Indian Kashmir with the Pakistani side.
