Terrorists Storm Temple in Jammu

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 25, 2002

Terrorists Storm Temple in Jammu

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In the second strike on the famous Raghunath temple this year, heavily armed militants, lobbing grenades and firing indiscriminately, stormed the shrine Sunday night, killing seven persons and injuring 28 others.

The Indian security forces immediatley surrounded the shrine and cleared the temple after nearly three hours of operation, in which one militant was killed while another was believed to have escaped.

Security forces are now engaged in a fierce gun battle with oneor two terrorists holed up in the Shiv Temple, about 400 meters from the Raghunath Temple.

The elite commandos of the National Security Guards (NSG) have been rushed from their camps in Manesar in Haryana to Jammu to assist the security forces, according to the Press Trust of India.

Of the injured, eight were reportedly in a serious condition and the authorities feared that the toll could go up.

In Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee reviewed the situation with senior Cabinet colleagues after which Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said the NSG was being dispatched to Jammu.

Advani said six persons and a policeman were killed and 28 injured in the attack at Raghunath temple.

The 150-year old Raghunath temple was targeted by terrorists onMarch 31, when eight people were killed.

Police Deputy Inspector General S. Stalin said that the militant was killed inside the inner Ram Lakshmi Temple in the Raghunath shrine complex after a fierce gun battle with the policecommandos.

Some people tried to set the militant's body on fire, but the police thwarted the attempt and whisked away his corpse from the rear of the temple, he said.

The police official did not confirm the reports of a second extremist inside the temple, saying if there was one he might havefled the scene. "At present the complex is cleared," he said.

With tension running high, the authorities have deployed the Central Reserved Police Force and additional Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police in all the sensitive areas.

Angry protesters held a rally denouncing the new government in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that the release of militants and its "soft policy" towards them had "emboldened" terrorists and the attack was a result of that.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Atal Bihari and his deputy L K Advaniare "closely monitoring" the situation arising out of the terrorist attack on Raghunath Temple in Jammu, a senior minister said Sunday night.

Advani will make a statement on it in both Houses of ParliamentMonday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said after Vajpayee reviewed the situation in Jammu at a high-level meeting.

"Both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister are in touch with authorities in Jammu and Kashmir," Mahajan said.

Asked about repeated attacks on temples including Akshardham inGujarat, Mahajan said it was not a question of attack on a temple or a mosque. "The government is seriously concerned over any attack on a place of worship," he added.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi Sunday night expressed deep shock and anguish over the terrorist attack on the Raghunath Temple in Jammu.

Terming the attack as "barbaric", she hoped that normalcy wouldbe restored at the earliest inside the temple complex.

In a statement issued here, she conveyed "heartfelt condolencesto the unfortunate victims in the attack" and appealed to the people to maintain communal peace and harmony.

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