Curfew In Rajouri, Bandh Observed

An idenfinite curfew was imposed on Rajouri town yesterday following deterioration in the law and order situation because of civilian demonstrations against Tuesdays massacre of eight members of a family of ex-servicemen at village Swarni 15 kms. North of Rajouri town.

Army has been called out to help the civilian administration there. The demonstrators are demanding immediate removal of the local district magistrate, deputy inspector general of police, senior superintendent of Rajouri district and the station house officer concerned. One processionist was injured in the police firing.

An indefinite bandh was announced in Rajouri yesterday to protest the massacre and to force the state administration accept the demands of the protestors. The relatives of the victims today refused to cremate their dead unless their demands are met by the state government. The district administration plans to have the cremation done under its supervision at the native village of the victims.

 

The tragedy was trigerred off because a girl belonging to the unfortunate family intended to marry a local Muslim boy who is reported to have sought the assistance of the militants after the girl was taken out of the village by her relatives in order to stop the two from getting married.

While the police here confirm that 35 militants encircled the family and opened an indiscriminate fire, eyewitnesses today told Business Standard that their number was around seventy. The state government has already announced an ex gratia relief of Rs 1 lakh each for the next of kin of the victims. Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah,yesterday said that the incident proves that Pakistan is on one hand talking of Peace with us and on the other hand continues to target innocent unarmed civilians to fan communal tension in J&K. warni massacre has come close on the heels of a massive encounter between the security forces and the militants in Thana Mandi of the same district. There are reports that secessionist militants are presently concentrating in Darhal, Surankete, Thana Mandi of Rajouri district and Gool, Arnas, Mohar and Mandar in Udhampur district of Jammu region. The State government believes that this concentration is part of a subversive plan to stoke communal passions in the rejoin by selective targeting of members of one community. There are also reports of migrations from these areas with many families deserting homes to take refuge in relatively safer areas of the province. Incidentally, Rojouri district is connected with the valley through historic Mughal road which joins at Shopian in South Kashmir. There is also a mountain link between the valley and Jammu region at Uri in North Kashmir which according to militants to sneak into Jammu region.