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NC leader, family gunned down in Kashmir

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Thousands of people broke an army cordon at village Kurhama Ganderbal, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's constituency, near Srinagar on Saturday morning. They held a massive demonstration to protest against alleged security force atrocities.

Militants, meanwhile, gunned down a senior National Conference leader and his family members. A district president of the Shiv Sena was also killed along with his security guard.

Police sources said militants ambushed Abdul Rashid Wani at Hatlangoo in north Kashmir late Friday evening, killing him and his personal security officer on the spot. Wani had unsuccessfully fought the 1996 assembly election. His other PSO was critically wounded and has been admitted to a Srinagar hospital.

Senior police and security force officers have rushed to the spot. Massive searches are on to nab the militants. No arrests have been made as yet. Nor has anyone owned responsibility for the killings.

A group of heavily armed militants entered the house of Abdul Ahmad Shiekh, a ruling National Conference leader, and sprayed bullets on the inmates, killing him, his father, mother, wife and brother-in-law on the spot at Tangmarg in northern Barramullah. Police said the militants escaped under the cover of darkness.

The militants have recently intensified their attacks on political workers and pro-India activists.

Nearly 7,000 people protesting against the alleged security force atrocities held a massive demonstration. Then they staged a sit-in on the road in front of the office of a local magistrate at Ganderbal.

Earlier the army, responding to a militant attack, had cordoned off Khurhama and adjoining villages and had assembled the people in an open area in biting cold. The residents alleged that during the wee hours of this morning the security forces entered several homes and roughed up residents including the local Imam.

As soon as the residents were asked to collect in an open field for identification parades, they shouted religious and pro-freedom slogans. They blocked traffic on the highway for several hours demanding action against the jawans.

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