NADI MARG, 25 March 2003 — Suspected militants lined up 24 Hindu men, women and children and gunned them down in Indian Kashmir in a new upsurge in violence, police said yesterday.
Britain, the United States and India’s nuclear rival Pakistan condemned the overnight massacre in this sleepy hamlet as the attack stoked India’s fears that violence could peak in Kashmir during the war on Iraq.
“The US condemns the ghastly murders of innocent men, women and children in Nadi Marg village in Jammu and Kashmir,” US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill said.
“The global war on terrorism will not be won until such atrocities end against all countries,” he said as Pakistan labeled the killing of the 24 victims, which included 11 women and two children “a blatant act of terrorism.”
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw spoke with his Indian counterpart Yashwant Sinha on the massacre and in a statement said Britain strongly condemned such acts.
“These killings, as with earlier terrorist attacks, underline the need for continued action to eliminate the scourge of terrorism,” Straw said.
The bloodletting also dimmed New Delhi’s hopes of resettling 200,000 Hindus who fled the region in 1989, when an uprising erupted in the region.
Ten to 12 armed militants entered the village of Nadi Marg, 54 km south of the summer capital Srinagar, late Sunday pretending to be soldiers, police official M.A. Amjum said. The gunmen herded out villagers from their homes and sprayed them with bullets from automatic guns before escaping into nearby forests.
Amjum said the militants overpowered six policemen guarding Nadi Marg, which only had 11 Hindu families, comprising 52 members, after others left the hamlet at the start of the uprising in Kashmir Valley.
A wounded survivor, Chunni Lal, 58, said the gunmen knocked on his door and ordered him and his wife out on the pretext of a search operation for militants. Lal held his breath and feigned death after being shot until the gunmen had left.
So far none of Kashmir’s two dozen rebel groups has claimed responsibility for the attack, the bloodiest since last May when militants killed 20 wives and children of Indian soldiers in Kashmir.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee convened an emergency meeting of the cabinet committee on security to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the massacre. The meeting strongly condemned the massacre.
Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani will visit Nadi Marg village today for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.
Meanwhile in Jammu, Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed strongly condemned the massacre. “This is an unpardonable crime by militants to derail the peace process initiated in Jammu and Kashmir by the coalition government.” He said a massive manhunt has been ordered to track down the killers. “These militants deserve no mercy,” he added.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Srinagar that the massacre will not deter the state government from its plans of resettling migrants in Kashmir. He said more security was needed in the state for its minority community.
