"No words are adequate to condemn the cold-blooded massacre of the members of the Hindu community by the militants in Champnari village in Doda district of J&K on 19 June, 1998 and to express my deep sympathy with the bereaved families.

Such barbaric acts constitute a blot on Islam and on Kashmiriat because the militants happen to bear Muslim names and hold a banner inscribed with Islam and Kashmir. Their Muslim supporters, in the state or outside, owe it to their faith to question such vicious criminality and cruelty in the name of Islam.

Repeated massacres in the Doda/Kishtwar districts also indicate the strategy of the militants to encircle the Valley by opening a corridor across the Pir Panchal and forcing out the non-Muslims from the corridor.

I demand that the Central and State Governments must counter this strategy with all the force at their command, plug the loopholes in the security system and assuring the people of their security so that they do not abandon their hearth and home and thus defeat the strategy of the militants.

I call upon the Hurriyat leadership to disown any violation of the right to life, honour and property of the non-Muslims in the state. I appeal to the Muslims of the State to rise in defence of their non-Muslim Kashmiri brethren. I request the governments and people of the countries to which the militants belong - as they are largely non-Kashmiris - not to glorify killers or to extend any support to them.                                           - Syed Shahabuddin, National Convener