Happy Eid! Why would they think to do this on an Islamic holy day? Perhaps because they considered what they were doing to be an act of religious devotion? Did they by this action mean to “mar” Eid, or rather to observe it? From AFP, with thanks to Twostellas:
SRINAGAR, India – Suspected rebels in Indian Kashmir killed three policemen on the eve of Eid, Islam’s holiest festival, as they guarded a Hindu village that witnessed a massacre in 2003, police said on Sunday.
The militants stormed the police post late Saturday in Nadimarg, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Srinagar, summer capital of India’s only Muslim majority state where a revolt against New Delhi’s rule has raged since 1989.
“The area has been sealed off and searches launched to arrest the militants,” a police spokesman told AFP.
The police post was set up to protect the few Hindu families remaining in Nadimarg where 24 people, including women and children, were killed in March 2003 by suspected militants clad in Indian army uniforms.
The villagers, known as Kashmiri Pandits, were dragged from their homes and shot to death.
The raid on the police post occurred on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr which marks the end of fasting month of Ramadan….
More than 40,000 people thronged Kashmir’s main mosque in Srinagar Sunday to pray for peace. Eid is being marked Sunday in the Himalayan region of Kashmir while Muslims elsewhere in India will celebrate the festival Monday….
The nuclear-armed neighbours, which have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region, hold it in part but claim it in full. India accuses Pakistan of arming the Islamic groups, a charge Islamabad denies….
Kashmiri Pandits, residents of the region for centuries, have often been targeted by suspected Muslim rebels, causing thousands to flee. The Jammu and Kashmir government has been seeking to persuade them to return to their homes.
At least 40,000 people have died in separatist-related violence since 1989. Separatist groups say the death toll is at least double that number.