Robed gunmen's attack kills 27 in Kashmir

JAMMU - At least 27 people were killed in Indian Kashmir when gunmen dressed as Hindu holy men sprayed slum-dwellers with bullets as they crowded around a television to watch a cricket match.

Among the dead were 13 women and a child.

The shooting came on the anniversary of a 1931 incident in which police shot and killed dozens of protesters demonstrating against a Hindu princely ruler.

The attack threatened to stoke tension between nuclear-capable foes India and Pakistan.

Police said 24 residents of the mainly Hindu shantytown in Jammu, the winter capital of India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, were killed outright by the five gunmen clad in saffron robes. Three others died later of their wounds.

Another 28 people, eight in critical condition, were in hospital.

Many of the victims were watching a cliffhanger one-day cricket international between India and England in London.

Police suspected a Pakistan militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, of carrying out the attack.

Indian authorities consider it the most ruthless of the groups fighting for Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan.

None of the dozen-odd separatist groups has claimed responsibility.

Police said troops were stationed in the slum area but had abandoned the search for the gunmen.



In other violence, nine Europeans - seven Germans, an Austrian and a Slovenian - and three Pakistanis were wounded when an assailant hurled a hand grenade at a tourist party in northern Pakistan.



Their injuries were described as minor.

No one claimed responsibility for the incident - the fifth attack on Westerners in Pakistan since military ruler General Pervez Musharraf abandoned neighbouring Afghanistan's Taleban rulers.

Pakistan is wary of more violence today, when a verdict will be delivered in the trial of four Islamic militants accused of murdering American journalist Daniel Pearl in January.

Investigators expect a guilty verdict on abduction charges, which carries the death penalty, but say the suspects could beat murder charges as Pearl's body was not found.

Fearing a violent backlash if a guilty verdict is delivered, Pakistan has placed security forces on high alert throughout Karachi.

- AGENCIES