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Many of those guilty of atrocities in Kashmir are Pakistanis: US

Many of the militants in Kashmir who are guilty of the worst atrocities are Pakistanis, Afghanis and other nationals, the US state department said on Monday.

"In addition to political killings, kidnappings and rapes of politicians and civilians, insurgents engaged in extortion and carried out acts of random terror that killed hundreds of Kashmiris."

"The militants are not (local) citizens but Afghani, Pakistani and other nationals," the state department said in its annual human rights report.

Since the 1990s, said the report, the militants have made liberal use of time-delayed explosives, landmines, hand grenades and snipers.

Militants previously had restricted use of landmines to army convoys travelling outside of major cities, but lately they have used command-detonated landmines in Srinagar city, it said.

There was a significant upsurge in militant violence against security forces and a tendency to use heavy weapons, such as hand grenades and rockets, the report said.

The report described at length extremist and terrorist activities in India during the past year, including the attack on Parliament and the suicide attack on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.

It also spoke about the Naxalite violence in the Northeast and Jharkhand, the attacks on Christians in some areas and the Hindu-Muslim communal clashes.

PTI

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