JAMMU, India Arch-foes India and Pakistan traded charges on Wednesday over an unprecedented rash of guerrilla attacks in Kashmir which left at least 85 civilians dead and dozens injured.
Tuesday night's bloodbath cast a shadow over tentative moves for peace in the insurgency-plagued Himalayan territory, where the frontline militant group Hizbul Mujahideen declared a cease-fire and called for dialog with India last week.
It also reopened a running sore in relations between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir.
New Delhi pointed a finger of blame at militant groups backed by its neighbor for the six massacres of mostly Hindu pilgrims and laborers in its state of Jammu and Kashmir over a period of less than 12 hours.
But an alliance of 16 Muslim militant outfits on the Pakistan-controlled side of the former princely state denied any involvement in the killings, and said they could be the work of Indian intelligence agencies.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry was more blunt, asserting in a statement that initial reports did not rule out the possibility that Indian forces were behind the attacks.
"On previous occasions, terrorist acts aimed at civilians have been carried out by renegade elements, at the behest of the Indian security forces, to malign the Kashmiri freedom struggle internationally," it said.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee vowed to continue along a path to peace but, blaming guerrilla groups sponsored by Pakistan, said New Delhi would not be "cowed down by terrorism".
"It is clear that ... after Hizbul Mujahideen's cease-fire call and moves for peace talks, either groups which enjoy Pakistan's protection or militant groups that take instructions from Pakistan have decided to end the peace and kill innocent people," Vajpayee said in a sombre address to Parliament.
Indian Army officials said they suspected that the die-hard Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the killings, which left a trail of bodies around a state equivalent to the area of Europe's low countries.
The first of the six massacres came on Tuesday evening in the tourist resort town of Pahalgam, some 100 km (60 miles) southeast of the city of Srinagar, where thousands of Hindus had gathered for the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath.
Police said guerrillas stormed a community kitchen in the town, killing 30 people and wounding 47.
Many of the injured were bystanders who were caught in the crossfire between police and the gunmen, two of whom were killed by security forces guarding the pilgrims.
There were then attacks on two villages in Anantnag district, about 54 km (32 miles) south of Srinagar, where 26 laborers from the Indian States of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh were gunned down.
Police said that in both cases the militants picked out men from their families and then opened fire with automatic weapons.
A further 22, including eight members of a village defense committee, were killed in the southern district of Doda.
(Reuter)