India blames Pakistan as eight Hindus die in attack

Islamic rebels armed with rifles and grenades attacked Hindu pilgrims on their way to a mountain shrine in Kashmir yesterday, killing eight people.

The early-morning attack on pilgrims sleeping at a base camp about 60 miles south of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, came only four days after Delhi announced it would hold assembly elections in the disputed territory.

The devotees were on an annual pilgrimage to a Himalayan cave where Hindus believe Lord Shiva revealed the secret of creation. "We were in our tents when the shooting started around five o'clock in the morning. It went on for over an hour," said an injured youth who was being carried away on a stretcher. At least 14 seriously injured pilgrims were taken to hospital. Soldiers returning fire killed one of the rebels.

Lal Krishna Advani, India's Deputy Prime Minister, said that a Pakistan-based group, Al-Mansur, had claimed responsibility. "This organisation is the new name of Lashkar-e-Taiba," he said. Lashkar is one of the radical Islamist groups fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir. It was banned by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan earlier this year in a crackdown on terrorism, but India says it is responsible for several recent terrorist strikes in Kashmir.

About 12,000 soldiers were mobilised to guard the month-long pilgrimage to the 13,000ft-high Amarnath cave, which began on 20 July. Pilgrims making the 18-mile trek to the cave have often been attacked by Islamic gunmen in the past two years. Last year, 13 pilgrims were killed in rebel attacks, while 23 died in 2000.

This year, the authorities feared that Islamic rebels opposed to the holding of elections in Kashmir would mount an especially daring assault. Despite the terrorist threat, about 100,000 faithful signed up.

Even before pilgrims started, a grenade attack on 15 July killed two devotees in Jammu, the railhead in southern Kashmir that is the arrival point for pilgrims. Barely 10 days later, a grenade thrown at a bus station on the way to the pilgrimage area injured 24 people.

Mr Advani said the Government would press ahead with assembly elections scheduled for autumn. But the politician, who has toned down his hawkish pronouncements on the military stand-off with Pakistan over Kashmir, faces criticism for his failure, as Home Minister, to protect the lives of Hindu pilgrims.

He was recently promoted by Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister, to serve as his deputy, and was given responsibility for revitalising the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which faces tough assembly elections next year.

Priyaranjan Das Munshi, a Congress Party MP, said: "Advani did not take the issue [of pilgrim security] seriously. He must decide whether he wants to fight cross-border terrorism, or whether he wants to get involved in the affairs of his party."

* Three men suspected of attacking a church school in Pakistan earlier this week, killing six people, blew themselves up yesterday after being challenged by police, an official said. Tahir Quyoom, deputy inspector general for police in the northern city of Muzaffarabad, said they had recovered the body of one of the men, who killed themselves near a river.