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Advani assures security to minorities in occupied Kashmir

JAMMU: Indian Interior Minister Lal Krishna Advani pledged on Sunday to provide adequate security to minorities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir state, following a massacre of 35 Sikhs in the region last week.

A security ring of state police and paramilitary forces supported by the army would be put around some villages inhabited by minorities in Kashmir.

"We have already enough...forces available in the state and now they will be deployed according to the requirement", the minister told reporters in Jammu.

The massacre last Monday has created fear among occupied Kashmir's Sikh community, which represents just 300,000 of the 7.9 million people in Kashmir but has been largely untouched by the cycle of violence in the state.

Advani said the carnage might have been planned to frighten the Sikh community and lead them to migrate away from the region.

He also said the Mujahideen had been under pressure to carry out a major attack, particularly during U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to India, to draw attention to Kashmir.

The massacre which took place just hours before Clinton began his visit to India, drew an expression of outrage from him.-Reuters