SRINAGAR, Feb 8 (2001) – A militant Islamic group in the disputed Indian state of Kashmir has appealed to Sikhs not to emigrate from the region after six members of their community were killed last week.
“We share and understand the agony of the Sikh community. The Hizbul Mujahideen appeals to members of the Sikh community to give up the idea of migration from their homeland,” Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman Commander Masood said in a statement.
Last Saturday, unidentified gunmen shot dead six Sikhs and wounded five others in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital.
No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, the second on Kashmiri Sikhs since a rebellion broke out in 1990 in the Himalayan region.
Hundreds of Kashmiri Sikhs gathered at a Sikh temple in Srinagar earlier this week and many said they wanted to migrate from the troubled Kashmir region to safer places.
“The majority community can feel the pain of the members of the minority community because the former has been through it,” said the Hizbul statement released on Thursday.
“The government has initiated a relentless propaganda against the ongoing freedom struggle by trying to shift the blame for the killings on the Mujahideen,” it added.
More than 30,000 people have died in the Himalayan region since various Islamic groups seeking either independence or union with neighbouring Pakistan launched the rebellion.
Sikhs, who make up a tiny fraction of the state’s eight million people, have usually been spared the violence which pits Islamic rebels against government forces, Hindus and pro-Indian Muslims.
Last March, however, 35 Sikhs were shot dead by unidentified gunmen during a visit to India by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
An estimated 300,000 Hindus have left the Kashmir valley since the start of the separatist movement.
India recently extended a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir which began on November 28. Most militant groups rejected the ceasefire and vowed to press on with their fight.
