SRINAGAR, India — Shops and schools shut down in parts of Indian Kashmir on Wednesday to protest against a string of apparently targeted killings that has triggered fear in the restive region. Hundreds of police and paramilitary troops in riot gear patrolled Kashmir's mostly deserted main city of Srinagar after separatist groups called a strike over the killings which they have blamed on undercover security forces. Unidentified gunmen have killed four separatist activists including two former rebels in the last week in the Sopore area of northern Kashmir. “The effect of the strike is widespread across towns in the Kashmir valley and other Muslim majority areas of the state also,” a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity. The killings began on June 9 when gunmen shot and killed a member of a group led by Indian Kashmir's top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani. That was followed by the killing of three more activists – one a sympathizer of the same group and two former rebels – a few days later. Police said initial investigations indicated rebel group Hizbul Mujahideen was behind the attacks and announced a reward of two million rupees ($31,000) for information. The group is one of several fighting for independence or a merger of the territory with neighboring Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people have died in the revolt that broke out in 1989, most of them civilians. But the manner of the latest killings has panicked some separatist activists, former rebels and residents. “Many people whose political leanings are known are fleeing Sopore,” a former rebel from the area, who wished not to be named, said. Sopore shopkeeper Talat Ahmed said, “I hesitate going out on the street. Many people have stopped going to the mosque after dark.” Geelani has compared the recent killings to targeted murders of the mid-1990s, when government-sponsored militias known as Ikhwanis killed a number of rebels and separatist activists. Separatist groups also point to Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar's comments last month, when he said that “we have to neutralize terrorists through terrorists only.” Jammu and Kashmir state Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Syed called a meeting of top generals and top security officials for Wednesday, after earlier ordering a probe into who was behind the deaths. In the last few days, meanwhile, India has deployed an additional 600 soldiers and police specializing in counterinsurgency operations to the area, police said. Soldiers are conducting searches for suspected militants and have put up posters offering a million rupees ($15,600) for information that can lead to the arrest of two militant commanders who are said to have plotted the attacks. Ajai Sahni, the executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management, said that a new generation of militants could be emerging who are trying to join militant groups or win backing from Pakistan by staging the killings. “These youngsters are likely self-radicalized over the Internet and do not have necessary linkages to established terrorist formations for recruitment, and therefore seek to give positive proof of their commitment,” he said. For the last four days in Sopore, a town of almost half a million people, the roads have been deserted, and most of the shops and local businesses have closed. “There is fear psychosis here,” said Mohammad Ashraf, president of the Traders Federation of Sopore. The attacks have come at a time of deteriorating relations between India and Pakistan. Both countries traded bitter verbal exchanges last week after India conducted a cross-border raid in Myanmar and a junior minister said it was a message to Pakistan that India will go after militants anywhere. — Agencies
