Suspected Kashmir rebel claims paid 20 dollars for grenade attack
Link
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061112/wl_sthasia_afp/indiakashmirunrest_061112053933
Sun Nov 12, 12:39 AM ET
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - A suspected Islamic militant said he had been paid about 20 dollars to hurl a grenade during Friday prayers at a mosque in Indian Kashmir that killed five people, including four children.....
Mir was captured by villagers immediately after the attack and handed over to authorities, said Brigadier J.S Katoch of the Indian army.
Mir denied any links with the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahedin, the region's leading rebel group fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir, whom the police have blamed for attack.
But he said that he was the nephew of a senior Hizbul commander Abdul Rashid Ganai. The Hizbul Mujahedin has denied it had any hand in the blast. (caught with their pants down I suppose
).
"Militants own the blasts that cause army casualties but disown those that cause civilian casualties," Katoch said.
Friday's attack came days before top officials of India and Pakistan are to meet for talks over a slow-moving peace process launched in 2004.
The region has been rocked by a series of grenade attacks by separatist militants in recent months.