SRINAGAR, Sept 25: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) promptly and unequivocally condemned the massacre of Hindu worshippers in a Gujarat temple but its leaders also said on Wednesday that attempts by New Delhi to link the outrage with the elections in Kashmir were preposterous.
APHC Chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat told Dawn here that Indian leaders ought to consider a more credible motive for the incident, in which at least 30 worshippers, including women and children, were killed by two heavily armed men.
“There are people who believe that the attack has linkage with the carnage in February carried out in the form of communal frenzy in Gujarat as well as the Gaurav Yatra there which has the communal overtones, implications. Let us not play politics, let us do justice,” Bhat said.
“APHC condemns the attack on the worshippers in the temple. In principle, we can feel the pain because we are ourselves subject to all sorts of attacks on our lives, property and honour,” Bhat said.
“But unfortunately the leadership in Delhi is linking it up with the elections in Kashmir. This is like saying a camel ate cotton in Kazigund and a weaver’s nose in Khandanyar is chopped off in retribution,” he said, translating a Kashmiri proverb.
In Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat, police said a note found on the body of one of the killers, who were gunned down after a night-long shootout with the elite National Security Group commandos rushed from Delhi, said they belonged to a hitherto unknown organization.
The note said the organization was avenging the killings in the Gujarat riots in February-March this year.
