4 children gunned down

By Shujaat Bukhari

JAMMU, DEC. 2. Four children of a Village Defence Committee member were killed in cold blood by a group of unidentified militants in a remote village in Udhampur district late on Friday. Elsewhere in Banihal area, two militants were killed in an encounter.

Reports reaching here said a heavily armed group of militants descended on village Chajru Jamala in Mahore tehsil, Udhampur, and forced their way into the house of Mr. Gyan Singh, a VDC member. The militants, according to a senior police officer, fired indiscriminately at the sleeping inmates, killing four children - Mr. Singh's 15-year-old son Hoshiar Singh and three daughters aged below 12. The VDC member and his another son were injured in the firing and have been hospitalised.

The VDCs in Doda and Udhampur district are mainly Hindus who have been provided with weapons to take on the militants. Only last week militants had targeted Sikhs and Hindus in Banihal and Kishtwar.

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