Kashmir islamists killed Hindu villagers by slitting throats

Islamic militants raided village Dhoob in the Indian portion of Kashmir, separated the villagers by religion and killed five Hindus by slitting their throats.

Police said the Thursday night attack by three men was the latest in several grisly attacks in which civilians were killed with axes or had their throats slashed.

The killings occurred in the village of Dhoob, in a remote area about 190 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, said Deputy Inspector General V.K. Singh.

Jammu-Kashmir is the only Muslim-majority state in Hindu-majority India.

The attackers walked into the village and lined up all the men, forcing the Muslims and Hindus to stand in separate lines, Singh said.

He said the killers were from one of about a dozen Pakistan-based militant groups that have been fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir since 1989 to create a separate state or merge the Himalayan region into Pakistan. He gave no evidence to back up that claim.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack so far, the AP reports.