Kashmir: Indian party official and brother shot dead

By Zahid Rafiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

In Jammu and Kashmir unidentified gunmen late Thursday shot dead a top party Indian official and his brother, officials announced.

Anil Parihar, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) state secretary for Jammu and Kashmir, and his brother Ajit Parihar were shot dead near their residence in the Kishtwar district.

The BJP, an ultra-nationalist Hinduvta party, is currently in power in India and was also in power in Jammu and Kashmir in a coalition government till a rift in the parties this June.

Rajinder Gupta, senior superintendent of police in Kishtwar, confirmed the killings to the media and said a hunt is underway to find the killers.

According to Indian media reports, a curfew has been ordered in Kishtwar and restrictions are being enforced in other towns of Jammu's Chenab Valley region in the wake of the killings.

Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.