Lashkar claims responsibility for ambush

ISLAMABAD, MARCH. 3. The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba today claimed responsibility for Friday's ambush in the Kashmir valley that killed at least 16 policemen.

A spokesman for the Lashkar said its guerillas carried out the attack in Rajouri district in Kashmir along with comrades from three other groups - Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Hizb-e-Islami and Jaish- e-Mohammad.

Police in Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir, put the death toll at 16. A Lashkar statement, faxed to Reuters in Islamabad, said 19 personnel of the Indian reserve police were killed in the biggest strike against security forces in Kashmir since India announced a unilateral ceasefire there in late November.

The Lashkar statement quoted the group ``supreme commander,'' Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, as saying the strike responded to alleged killings of detained people by the Indian reserve police. ``The personnel involved in custodial killings will not be spared,'' he said. ``Ordinary policemen are not the target of the Mujahideen. Only special operations squads of police involved in repression and martyring of innocent kashmiris will be targeted.''

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Section  : International
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