: Most particularly, I'm wondering if these really are
: "Muslim rebels", or well-trained agitators/death
: squads with a mission that's not apparent yet.

(Oh, okay - now I'm gettin' it: "Muslims are the bad guys". Is Shrub headed back to Iraq or Iran or someplace like that...?)

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Saturday August 4 10:09 AM ET

Suspected Guerrillas Kill 17 Hindus in Kashmir

By Ashok Pahalwan

JAMMU, India (Reuters) - Suspected separatist Muslim guerrillas are believed to have killed 17 Hindu villagers on Saturday in India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, a police official said.

From Pakistan, however, two Kashmiri militant groups condemned the killings and accused Indian security forces of themselves being behind the incident.

The killers abducted 20 Hindus from the town of Atholi and took them to a remote area before shooting them, the Indian police official said.

Police said they had recovered 13 bodies from the scene and there were reports that a total of 15 people had been killed there. Five of the Hindus were injured and taken to hospital in the shooting.

``Out of the five injured, two people died in hospital taking the death toll to 17,'' the police official said.

The villagers had gone to Atholi from the remote Paddar area -- snowbound for much of the year -- to buy provisions for the coming winter when they were attacked and taken hostage.

Police said an indefinite curfew had been imposed on Kishtwar, the main town in the area 140 miles of the state's winter capital Jammu, because of tension after the killings.

State governor Girish Chander Saxena and federal junior minister for civil aviation Chaman Lal Gupta visited the scene of the massacre.

The police official said so far no group had claimed responsibility for the killings. Officials in Jammu said militants of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group could be behind the attack as they are active in the area.

Lashkar-e-Taiba issued a statement in the Pakistan-controlled side of Kashmir denying involvement.

``Several times in the past we have made it clear that Lashkar-e-Taiba's Mujahideen do not raise arms against civilians whether they are Hindus, Sikhs, Christians or any other religion. Islam does not permit us to raise arms against civilians,'' the statement said.

``We can and we do target (Indian) military camps at our will,'' it added.

Lashkar-e-Taiba's spokesman Abu Osama told Reuters that the group wanted international human rights groups to investigate the incident to ascertain responsibility.

Syed Salahuddin, supreme commander of the frontline Hizbul Mujahideen militant group, told Reuters the massacre was ``an atrocious and brutal act, and we strongly condemn it.''

``It is a conspiracy on the part of Indian secret agencies to create communal conflict and give our movement a communal color,'' he added.

Violence has escalated in the Himalayan region since a summit last month between India and Pakistan failed to produce concrete results. Nearly 150 people, mostly rebels, have been killed since
the summit ended.

India, which controls 45 percent of Kashmir, accuses Pakistan of arming and aiding Muslim separatists in the Muslim-majority state.

Pakistan, which rules just over a third of the territory, denies this and says it gives them only moral and diplomatic support.

Authorities say more than 30,000 people have been killed in the revolt against Indian rule which began in late 1989. Separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.

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