SRINAGAR, Feb 4 (2001)- Authorities in India’s troubled Jammu and Kashmir state imposed an indefinite curfew on most parts of its summer capital on Sunday after unidentified gunmen shot dead six Sikhs and wounded five others, police and witnesses said.
Police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed and security patrols were intensified in most parts of Srinagar, a police official said.
He said security had been tightened up in Sikh dominated areas across Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state.
“No untoward incident has so far taken place,” the police official told Reuters.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead six Sikhs and wounded five others on Saturday evening in the Mahjoor Nagar area of Srinagar.
The attack came a day after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan’s military ruler General Pervez Musharraf held their first conversation in more than a year, prompted by the devastating earthquake in western India.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the second on Kashmiri Sikhs since a rebellion broke out in the Himalayan region in 1990.
Last March, 35 Sikhs were shot dead by unidentified gunmen when then U.S. President Bill Clinton began an official visit to India. Indian security forces and Muslim separatist guerrillas have blamed each other for the killings.
India recently extended a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir which began last November. Most of the militant groups have rejected the ceasefire and vowed to press on with their fight.
Authorities say more than 30,000 people have been killed since 1990 in Jammu and Kashmir.
