Troubled Kashmir

The Religion of Pieces continues to astonish for its sheer brutality.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead 22 Hindus, including a nine-year old girl, in two villages of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir late Sunday night. In a separate incident, 12 Hindus kidnapped on Sunday were found dead.

The gunmen killed the Hindus after dragging them out of their houses. The injured included a women and her daughter.

Local journalist Haq Nawaz Nehru, who alerted journalists in Srinagar and Jammu late Sunday night, told Daily Times from Doda on the phone that gunmen wearing combat fatigues had reached the remote hamlets of Panjdobi and Thava and ordered villagers to come out of their houses. “They were herded to the house of a local village head, where the gunmen opened fire at them, killing 22 people on the spot,” he said.

Senior police officials have rushed to the twin villages. SP Vaid, the inspector general of police (Jammu), said that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) militants were responsible for the massacre. VK Duggal, the union home secretary, told reporters that leads suggested the involvement of a “particular outfit”, but refused to name the outfit. A senior security official said that Lashkar had over 350 militants operating in Doda district and 90 percent of them were foreigners.