Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

KASHMIRI SEPARATISM • 349On 21 March 2000 some 40 armed Lashkar-e Tayyaba militantsdescended on Chatisinghpura village in the evening and separatedout 35 male Sikhs, whom they then massacred. Prior to this attack theSikh community in Kashmir had not been targeted by separatists. On28 March 2000 three militants, who had barricaded themselves in amosque in Handwara, were killed in a clash with Indian troops. During14–16 July 2001, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and IndianPrime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee held peace talks in Agra, India.However, on 1 October 2001 a suicide car-bombing attack on the KashmirState Legislative Assembly by four Jaish-e Muhammed (JEM)militants killed 34 and wounded over 40 people while the 13 December2001 JEM suicide attack on the Indian parliament led to the severanceof diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan that were not resumeduntil 2 May 2003. On 21 May 2002 Abdul Ghani Lone, the leader ofa moderate separatist party known as the People’s Conference, wasassassinated by militants, leading to demonstrations against the Indiangovernment for failing to protect moderate Kashmiri politicians. On 13July 2003 Lashkar-e Tayyaba militants carried out a hand-grenade andmachine-gun attack on the Qasim Nagar market in Srinagar, killing27 people and injuring many others. On 20 and 29 July 2005, suicidebombings by HUM militants in central Srinagar killed four Indian armysoldiers and three journalists and injured 17 others.On 3 May 2006 the Lashkar-e Tayyaba massacred 35 Hindus in theDoda and Udhumpur districts. On 18 February 2007, the day beforePakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was to arrivein New Dehli to continue peace talks with India, unknown terroristsbombed the Samjhauta Express on its Dehli-to-Lahore run withimprovised explosive devices and flammable liquids left aboard thetrain, which killed 68 and injured 50 people when it exploded nearPanjpat, Haryana State. On 24 August 2008, after two weeks of separatistdemonstrations against Indian rule left almost three dozen peopledead, Indian authorities imposed a curfew upon the Muslim-majorityareas of Kashmir. With the decline in President Musharraf’s power,beginning in March 2008 protests and clashes in Kashmir increased,leading Indian authorities to speculate that the Pakistani Inter-ServicesIntelligence agency was encouraging militant Kashmiri separatistgroups in order to strengthen its own position within Pakistan. See alsoJAISH-E MUHAMMAD; LASHKAR-E JHANGVI; LASHKAR-ETAYABBA; MUMBAI ATTACKS.