Hindus die in Kashmir attacks

Security forces are searching for the killers

By Binoo Joshi in Jammu

Suspected militants have killed four Hindus in a remote mountainous district of Indian-administered Kashmir.

Police say militants shot dead two shepherds in the Luddu area of Doda district in Jammu and took away their livestock.

In another incident, in Mahu Mangat in the same district, two more Hindus were killed.

Their bodies were recovered from a forest area. The whereabouts of a third villager who was kidnapped at the same time is not yet known.

Security forces have launched a search operation in the area to catch the killers.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings.

Earlier this month, suspected militants in Doda killed 15 Hindu shepherds.

Shepherds are thought to be more vulnerable to attack because they take their livestock to higher, more remote, areas during the warmer weather.

Meanwhile, a strike in protest against the recent killings is being held in the town of Banihal on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Markets and shops closed in the town, which is populated predominantly by Muslims.