July 8, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 7,1424

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JAMMU, July 7: Suspected Mujahideen dressed in army fatigues on Monday gunned down five Hindu villagers in occupied Kashmir, where two former freedom fighters were killed in separate violence, police said.

A police spokesman said the disguised Kashmiris opened fire on villagers in the adjoining towns of Dainika and Langar in the Nowshera area of Rajouri, 150 kilometeres west of Jammu.

“Three men and two women died on the spot,” said the spokesman. “Another person is seriously injured.”

The circumstances behind the attack were not immediately clear.

In separate violence overnight, Mujahideen shot dead two of their former colleagues who were sleeping in their houses in the Morun and Qaisergam villages of the southern Pulwama district, police said.

A police spokesman said the two former freedom fighters — Fayaz Ahmed and Bashir Ahmed Matoo — were released from Indian jails just over a year ago and had been leading normal lives.

“We are ascertaining the motive for their killings,” the spokesman said.

No Kashmiri group immediately claimed responsibility for the killings of the five Hindus or the two former militants.

Also overnight, Mujahideen opened automatic rifle fire and launched rockets on a camp of the Indian army’s counter-insurgency wing, the National Rifles, near the township of Bandipora, 60 kilometers north of Srinagar.

No casualties were reported in the 30-minute attack.—AFP