Suspected militants shot dead at least 35 Hindus in Indian occupied Kashmir ahead of crucial talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kashmiri leaders, officials and police said on Monday.
In one of the bloodiest massacres in recent months, militants struck two remote Hindu-dominated mountainous villages in occupied Doda district, some 170 km (100 miles) north-east of occupied Jammu early on Monday, and gunned down 22 Hindus.
On the same day, bullet-ridden bodies of nine Hindus were recovered from neighbouring Udhampur district. Police said the dead were Hindu cattle herdsmen reportedly kidnapped by suspected militants late on Sunday. Four of them were found dead on Sunday itself. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Prime Minister Singh, who is due to meet Kashmiri leaders on Wednesday and would travel to the violent region later this month for a Kashmir "roundtable", condemned the attack.
"People of Kashmir have rejected and rebuffed terrorists repeatedly," Singh said.
Witnesses of the Doda attack told a chilling story of a midnight knock followed by bursts of gunshots.
"It was a late hour knock," Rakesh Kumar said. "I told my brother not to open the door but he didn't listen and was whisked away to a nearby spot where he was shot."
He said the militants, some dressed in police uniforms while others in traditional Kashmiri dress - a long, loose shirt and trousers - split themselves into two groups before opening fire.
"They attacked two localities simultaneously," he said, adding there are more than 500 families live in the area, a majority of them Hindus.
Gulzar Ahmed Qureshi, a top Doda official, told Reuters the villagers were asked to assemble outside the house of the village head and later shot dead. "Yes, they are all Hindus," he added.
One wounded man told Sahara News television channel over the telephone that militants "took one man from each house".
"The others they told to go inside. They said they would set us free later. After going some distance, they started beating us up and then opened fire," the witness said. The Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest militant group, denied any role in the attack. "We strongly condemn these killings which seem to be a conspiracy of Indian security agencies to malign the ongoing freedom struggle and Mujahideen (holy warriors)," a spokesman of the group said in telephone calls to local newspaper offices in occupied Srinagar. Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq condemned the attack, terming it "an act of terrorism". "This has not gone well with people who don't want the peace process to succeed," said puppet Kashmir's chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.
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