Kashmir Killings - Suspected Islamic militants kill state minister and others
TAPE: EF02/0771
IN_TIME: 22:55:59
DURATION: 1:34
SOURCES: APTN
RESTRICTIONS:
DATELINE: Sugam - 11 Sept 2002
SHOTLIST:
Sugam, Jammu and Kashmir State
1. Ambulance carrying injured driving past
2. Mid shot of body of minister Mushtaq Ahmed Lone
3. Close of face
4. Man beating chest and crying beside body
5. Women crying
6. Body surrounded by people
7. Man wiping tears
8. Woman crying and singing
9. Woman being consoled
10. Public gathered
11. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Saifuddin, Eyewitness:
"He was just ending his speech. Suddenly there was a burst of gunfire. I was standing behind Lone. There was a pillar behind which I hid."
12. Lone's sister screaming hysterically
13. Relative entering
14. Various of soldier
15. Wide of public and tent in background
STORYLINE:
Suspected Islamic militants gunned down a state minister and 15 others in separate attacks on Wednesday in the run-up to crucial state elections in Kashmir, according to police.
Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, law minister for Jammu-Kashmir state,was killed in a hail of gunfire while addressing an election rally in a school building in Lalpora.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior police officer said an explosion went off and two gunmen burst out of a rice paddy firing machine guns.
Lone, who was a candidate in the upcoming state legislature elections, was hit in the first burst of gunfire, along with a police officer guarding him. The minister's security forces returned fire, but by the time the gun battle was over, Lone, five police officers and one civilian were dead.
Eight other people were injured in the attack some 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Srinagar. The gunmen escaped.
Two Islamic militant groups, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the largest Pakistan-based group operating in Kashmir, and the previously unknown Al-Arifeen Squad, both claimed responsibility for the attack.
Suspected insurgents also opened fire at a bus station in Surankot, a town 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Jammu, the state's winter capital, killing at least nine people, including four Border Security Force soldiers and a 12-year-old boy, according to police. The assailants fled.
The rebels, who have been fighting for either an independent state or a merger with Pakistan, have intensified attacks on politicians defying their call to boycott the elections that begin next Monday. On Tuesday, insurgents attacked two National Conference leaders, but they survived.
The Indian government, however, hopes that peaceful and transparent voting will ease violence and deflate support for the separatist movement. Some 32-thousand paramilitary soldiers have been deployed across the state to prevent violence during the polls.
Lone was also one of the most heavily guarded men in Kashmir - with dozens of soldiers constantly surrounding him - and his killing was a sign to other candidates that they are not safe.
With Lone dead, the election in the Lolab constituency will be postponed, according to Dheeraj Gupta, deputy chief election officer.