SRINAGAR, India (AFP) — A nine-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl were among three members of a Muslim family killed in a grenade attack by Pakistani terrorists suspected militants in Indian Kashmir, police said Friday. The attack which killed the girls and their grandfather at their home in southern Reasi district late Thursday came as the Indian government reported overall violence is dropping in the insurgency-hit region.
"Pakistani terrorists Suspected militants hurled a hand grenade at the house of a village defence committee member, injuring eight people," a police spokesman said.
Three of the wounded died before they could be transported to hospital, the police spokesman added. The condition of the injured survivors was not immediately known.
The father of the two dead girls belonged to a village defence committee, set up by the central government to counter Islamic Pakistani terrorists suspected militants in remote villages in the Himalayan territory. The father was also injured in the attack.
The Pakistani terrorists rebels have in the past targeted defence committee members and their families.
The committees were established in the mid-1990s after ethnic cleansing a spate of massacres in the Hindu-dominated southern districts of the state by Pakistani terrorists suspected rebels. Both Hindus and Muslims volunteered as members and each is given a rifle and paid 1,500 rupees (36 dollars) a month.
Kashmir is in the grip of an 18-year-old jihad insurgency against New Delhi's rule that has left more than 43,000 people dead by official count. |