Eight killed in attacks on Hindu temples

AT least eight people died when suspected Islamic rebel gunmen attacked two Hindu temples in Indian Kashmir on Sunday, police said, as rebels warned a new state government the long anti-Indian revolt was not dead.

Four hours after the first temple was attacked in the 150-year-old Raghunath temple complex, gunfire continued at another temple 200 metres away in the heart of Jammu, winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state.

Five civilians, a security officer and a rebel were killed in the first raid at 7.00 pm (1330 GMT) and another officer was killed in the second, police said. At least 47 people were injured.

It was not clear if the ongoing battle at the second temple involved the second of two gunmen involved in the first attack.

Kashmir has been the trigger for two of three wars between India and Pakistan and was at the heart of a

military build-up that brought the nuclear powers close to another in June.

More than 40 people died in a spate of attacks over the past 48 hours, including the temple victims and 12 people killed in a land mine blast which rebels said was a message to the state's new leader who has vowed to bring peace to the disputed region. "It was a response to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Syed's assertion that militancy was on its last legs," two guerrilla groups said in a brief statement published in Kashmir's main newspaper, Greater Kashmir. The two pro-Pakistan groups Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-e-Jehad Islami claimed responsibility for the blast. Outside the temple in Jammu, at least one bitter onlooker blamed the conciliatory approach of the new state government for the latest Hindu killings in India's only Muslim-majority state.

"Mufti is responsible for this incident because he has been releasing militants," said the man. Syed has freed leading political prisoners as part of efforts to open wide-ranging peace talks. Although still pro-Delhi, Syed's new coalition ended decades of heavily pro-Indian rule and has raised hopes for a change after a watershed state poll in September and October dumped a hard line party that is part of the ruling federal coalition.