The Hindu : 9 Amarnath pilgrims killed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 07, 2002

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9 Amarnath pilgrims killed

By Shujaat Bukhari

Police personnel inspecting the spot at Pahalgam where nine Amarnath pilgrims were killed on Tuesday.

NUNWAN (PAHALGAM) Aug. 6. At least nine Amarnath pilgrims, including a young girl, were killed and 50 injured in a militant attack on their highly-fortified base camp here on Tuesday. One militant of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who sneaked into the camp was killed by the security forces. However, the yatra was not suspended.

Three militants descended from a hillock and one of them, Abu Qasim, made his way into the camp while his accomplices gave him cover fire. "Qasim, a LeT fidayeen (suicide bomber), was killed," the Director-General of Police, A. K. Suri, said.

Police sources said that later, a note was recovered from Qasim's possession, which said that his body should be buried in Lidroo village. "They (militants) had selected him by a draw of lots as all the three wanted to be martyred. His AK 47 had a sticker of Cassette Library, Lahore, which had Ya Allah Madad written on it,'' said a senior police officer.

The body of one of the militants who carried out the attack. — Photo: Nissar Ahmad

The Jammu and Kashmir Governor, G. C. Saxena, the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, the Union Minister of State for Defence, Chaman Lal Gupta, the Minister of State for Home, Khalid Najib Suhrawardy, the Special Secretary in the Union Home Ministry, Ashok Bhandari, Mr. Suri and other senior officials visited the site.

Eyewitnesses said a blast shook the camp around 5.15 a.m. "We heard a blast and didn't know what it was... but when it was followed by heavy firing, all of us ran for our lives'' said Savita, a pilgrim from Gujarat.

The personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force retaliated and a gunbattle ensued, which, according to an injured pilgrim, Radhay Sham, said continued for 45 minutes. The SSP, Anantnag, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, was the first to reach the camp. The injured were shifted to medical aid camps in Nunwan and later to the Civil Hospital in Pahalgam. "Fifty persons were brought in, of whom four were dead and the rest had either bullet or splinter injuries," said a doctor, in-charge of a medical camp. Twentyfive persons were discharged after first aid, 12 were admitted in Pahalgam and 14 were rushed to Srinagar. Four pilgrims died on the way to hospital and one died in a Srinagar hospital. In spite of the attack the yatra was not suspended and the pilgrims continued their journey from Jammu.

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