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Militants behead main accused in Poonch massacre
By Shujaat Bukhari
JAMMU, JAN. 23. By beheading Mohammad Nazeem, main accused in Sunday night's massacre in Poonch, Kashmiri militants have sought to make their position clear. But it has embarrassed the Government which initially suggested militant involvement in the gruesome killing of eight children and three others in Bera Kund village.
Police had arrested three persons, Mohammad Sharief, Mohammad Taj and Mohammad Anwar after the massacre and said Nazeem, who was disengaged as Special Police Official (SPO) a year ago, was absconding. But before they could arrest him, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which was ``blamed'' for the massacre, killed Nazeem. ``His throat was slit, and a note found on his body said he was being punished for the gruesome killing of children,'' the DIG Rajouri-Poonch, S.S. Bijral, said. The note also said the people who performed the burial would meet with the same fate. Officials said the militants must have killed him to send a message that ``they were against the killing of the innocent.''
Among the arrested, Sharief is Nazeem's father and the other two are his uncles, who were present during the massacre. Nazeem's aunt was divorced by Zakir Hussain, head of the massacred family, and so he wanted to take revenge under the guise of a militant.Even as militants have clarified their position by ``punishing him suitably'', the Government had nothing to say in defence of the faux pas on Monday, when it was declared that militants had carried out the massacre. Even Gen. Musharraf was directly blamed for not mending his ways and continuing with ``double standards''. But the Government later admitted that it was the result of a family feud.
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