Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

KASHMIRI SEPARATISM • 347imposed direct rule over Kashmir from New Delhi and in February1994 imposed military rule, suspending scheduled elections for sixmonths to contain the insurgency. On 8 August 1994 military rulewas extended until elections scheduled for May 1995. In the courseof the first five years of the insurgency, more than 12,000 peoplewere killed. The insurgency was reinforced by large numbers of Islamicmilitant veterans of the Mujahideen war against the Soviets inAfghanistan, including not only Afghans but also non-Kashmiri Muslimsof other nations. The rise of Hindu nationalism within India in the1990s, leading to the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya on6 December 1992 by Hindu militants, has also been cited as a causefor the increased militancy of the Kashmiri separatist movement.Separatists of the al Hadid group kidnapped four Western tourists inmid-October 1994. One American tourist escaped, and Indian policefreed the remaining three Britons on 1 November. Unfortunately, sectarianand communal divisions sharpened when a fire on 11 May 1995destroyed the 15th-century Hazratbal Mosque in Charar Sharif nearSrinagar. This mosque was under siege by Indian troops who soughtto arrest militants who were using it as an arms depot and commandpost. When a fire destroyed most of the ancient wooden buildings inthe town, including the mosque, militants claimed the Indian army haddeliberately set the blaze and desecrated the mosque. A rash of around150 arsons, including attacks on Hindu shrines, and widespread unrestcaused cancellation of the May elections. This was followed on 4July 1995 by the kidnapping of five Western tourists by al Faran, nowbelieved to be a nom de guerre of the Harakat ul Ansar.On 20 April 1996 the Harakat ul Muminim bombed a New Delhimarket, killing 17 people, including eight tourists, and injuring 30others. During the period 1995–1997 another 8,000 people werekilled, and in 1998 separatists began a campaign of attacking andslaying large groups of Hindu civilians in remote areas and villages,causing many of the 100,000 Hindus living in the Vale ofKashmir to flee to the largely Hindu city of Jammu. On 2 August1998 separatists entered the neighboring Hindu-majority state of HimachalPradesh and massacred 26 construction workers and injuredeight others in the town of Chamba. On 26 May 1999 the conflictescalated to the point that the Indian air force began bombing runson Kashmiri separatist enclaves carved out within the Indian portionof the 1949 cease-fire line, which included the strategic Tololing