Tags:
Journalism of Courage
JAMMU, FEBRUARY 28: At least five Hindus, including three women, were gunneddown and several injured when heavily armed foreign mercenaries attackedtheir houses in Harni village of Mendhar tehsil in Poonch district lastnight, official sources said here today. The militants managed to escape.
A group of mercenaries, guided by some locals, surrounded the village around7.30 p.m, barged into two houses belonging to Hindus and firedindiscriminately, injuring several persons. Four of the victims, includingthree women, later died of their injuries.
The security forces later shifted the injured to hospital, cordoned off thearea and launched a combing operation to trace the killers.
The killings dominated the zero hour in the Stae Assembly today, withOpposition members staging a walkout from the House in protest against theGovernment’s alleged callous attitude. The trouble erupted soon after theconclusion of question hour in the House.
, Speaker Abdul Ahad Vakil said he had received a petition from theresidents of Haihama village about the disappearance of two villagers.Identifying them as Zee Mohammad and Mohammad Shafi, he said the villagersapprehended that both have been killed by some unknown persons. He askedMinister of State for Home Mushtaq Ahmed Lone to give information on thematter.
Then, as he called Kafil-ur-Rehman (NC) to raise his issue during zero hour,many opposition members stood up and raised the issue of the Poonchkillings. To pacify them, the Speaker said that he would take up the matterwith the minister concerned and ask him to provide information.
However, when he again called the name of Kafil-ur-Rehman, the Oppositionmembers walked out of the House in protest. They included Ashok Khajuria,Shiv Charan Gupta, Prem Lal, Hansraj Dogra, Prithvi Chand (all BJP), AshokSharma, Balbir Singh and Lal Singh (all Congress), Sagar Chand and Som Nath(both Bahujan Samaj Party) and Harsh Dev Singh (Panthers Party).
