20000326

Five villagers gunned

down in Kashmir

by Indian forces

ISLAMABAD: In occupied Kashmir, Indian forces personnel shot dead five Muslim villagers during night at the village of Ramvan some 200-kms North of Jammu, reports Kashmir Media Service (KMS).

According to reports, a group of armed men stormed the home of a Muslim family and shot dead two men and three women. Two other men were injured in the attack.

The chairman of the United Jehad Council and supreme commander, Hizbul Mujahideen, Syed Salahuddin Ahmad, has said that the killing of Muslim villagers has been done by the Indian armed forces' who have been carrying out genocide of Kashmiri Muslims with impunity.

A Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman has described as baseless and concocted the statement by the Indian Interior Secretary, Kamal Pandey, saying that a Mujahid belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen allegedly involved in the Chatti Singhpura killing has been arrested.

The spokesman clarified that no Mujahid by the name of Mohammad Yaqub Wagey has ever been associated with Hizbul Mujahideen.

Getting a forced statement from an under custody person and concocting baseless stories to defame the Kashmiris struggle is an old but common practice of the Indian authorities, the spokesman added.

The interior secretary mentioned the number of attackers as 17 whereas the Srinagar administration said they were between 40 to 50.

The spokesman said the incident of Chatti Singhpura is the handiwork of the Indian forces who, immediately after the bloodshed offered the Sikhs to join the village defence committee under a pre-conceived conspiracy so as to use the Sikh minority as a counter-insurgency force against the Mujahideen.

The spokesman reiterated that the Kashmiris struggle for their rights would continue un-deterred.

In Srinagar on Saturday a three-member delegation of the human rights organisation from Indian Punjab had separate meetings with APHC Acting Chairman Mir Waiz Umer Farooq and members of the executive committee of Hurriyat Conference.

Mir Waiz and the executive members apprised the delegation of the latest situation arising out of the Chatti Singhpura incident and about their demand for an impartial inequity of the crime through an international court of justice.

The delegation supported the demand for an investigation through Amnesty International or any other neutral agency. The delegation acknowledged that the Kashmiri Muslims have always upheld communal harmony and the traditional religious tolerance.

The Indian Punjab delegation consisted of N S Grewal, D S GIll and Rambir Singh Mita. They belonged to Ludhiana chapter of the International Human Rights Organisation.

The Hurriyat Conference leaders present during the meeting were Ghulam Mohammad Butt, Advocate Bashir Ahmad Butt, Ali Mohammad, and Hafizul Mekhdomi besides Mukhtar Ahmad Soofi, Syed Iftekhar Hussain Jalali, Syed Muzaffar Rizvi, Ghulam Nabi Shah, Abdul Rashid and Mukhtar Ahmad.

Kashmir leaders imprisoned in Udhempur and Kot Balwal jails in Jammu, in a statement, reiterating sympathies with the Sikh community, have expressed shock and grief over the Chatti Singhpura incident.

The incarcerated Kashmiri leader include Ghulam Nabi Hubbi, Ghulam Nabi Sumji, Shaikh Abdul Aziz, Bashir Ahmad Tota and Shahid-ul-Islam.

In their joint statement, they made impassioned appeal to all the people in occupied Kashmir to maintain the atmosphere of traditional brotherly relationship, unity and solidarity. They also called upon the people to be vigilant against the designs of disruptive and benefit-seeking elements.

On the other hand, occupied Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Party's detained chief, Syed Shabbir Ahmad Shah, has warned that in order to subvert the Kashmiris' struggle, a conspiracy had been hatched to spread hatred and rancour among the followers of different faiths who have been living together peacefully for centuries.

By creating doubt and suspicious among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, they were being made to feel insecure, he added. Syed Shabbir Ahmad Shah said that the Sikh community was aware of the fact that Muslims always protected life and property of Sikhs in their continuing struggle, and reminded them that it were the Kashmiri Muslims who had launched a strong protest when the Indian rulers had desecrated the Golden Temple at Amritsar by attacking this most sacred Shrine of Sikhs faith.

He called upon them not to think of migrating by falling a prey to the nefarious designs of disruptive elements and assured them of full support of their Muslim brethren.

Shabbir said that the Kashmiri Pandits were forced to quit the Valley as part of the conspiracy to malign the Kashmiris freedom struggle. Kashmir, he said, belong to all its citizens whether they were Hindus, Sikhs or Muslims.

Meanwhile, the Sikh leaders have acknowledged that certain self-seeking elements were trying to create a rift among the Muslims and Sikhs in the guise of Chatti Singhpura incident.

Jammu Gurdwara Prabandak Board Chairman Sardar Sudarshan Singh, after touring the Valley, told newsmen at Jammu airport that the Sikh leaders would undertake visits to various places in occupied Jammu and ensure the Muslim brethren of their safety and security and that the mischievious elements would not be allowed to succeed.

He stressed upon the Sikhs to exercise restraint and maintain the traditional atmosphere of brotherhood and tolerance.

During pitched battled between the Mujahideen and Indian forces of half a dozen places, a number of Indian forces' personnel including officers were killed and wounded.

A spokesman of Hizbul Mujahideen aid that a number of troops were killed or wounded when the vehicle they were travelling blew up after hitting a land mine planted in its way.

The spokesman added that an Indian patrolling contingent was also ambushed at Hardatoor, Islamabad and several troops were killed or wounded in the attack launched with rockets and automatic weapons on a task force camp, destroying two military barracks.

In Sheala Kadal, Bijbehara, the Indian forces were attacked when they attempted to ambush a Mujahideen hideout and in the ensuring battle a number of troops including an officer were killed by the Mujahideen.ÑAPP