India Officials Fail to Talk Rebels Out of Shrine

Indian officials, confronting outnumbered Muslim separatists occupying Kashmir’s holiest shrine, tried to talk them into surrendering Sunday. But the rebels refused and threatened to blow up the mosque if soldiers entered.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao met with his Cabinet to discuss the crisis at the Hazratbal Mosque, believed to be the center of the armed effort to separate Jammu-Kashmir state from India.

The domed, white marble building houses what is believed to be a hair from the Prophet Mohammed, a relic so holy that its brief disappearance 20 years ago sparked a week of rioting.

Police said they moved to the building Friday in the belief that militants intending to steal the relic had broken the locks of the sanctuary. The guerrillas accused the security forces of trying to remove the relic themselves in an attempt to discredit the rebels.

About 400 soldiers surrounded the mosque Sunday in the second day of the standoff. Police said 60 armed rebels were inside.

But one militant inside the mosque, who gave his name as Omar, said in a telephone interview that eight of the 175 people inside are militants, and only six have guns. He said they will not open fire unless the soldiers shoot first.

“It is very tense in here,” he said. “The simple people inside don’t have water or food.” Water and electricity to the building were cut off Saturday.

Those inside are afraid of being brutalized by Indian security forces if they leave, he said, and are willing to sacrifice themselves to defend the sacred relic.

An explosion occurred Sunday night in a neighborhood about one-third of a mile from the mosque. Police were unsure of the source but believe that it was unrelated to the standoff at the mosque.

Government negotiators said the militants no longer were demanding that soldiers withdraw from the lakeside complex but instead insisted that the military lift its curfew in Srinagar and open the mosque to the public.

That was likely to be rejected because it would allow supporters to flood the shrine and help the rebels slip away.

Police Inspector General Ashok Kumar Suri, who was negotiating with the militants, said they threatened to blow up the mosque if security forces entered. There were unconfirmed reports that militants had spread gunpowder around the building.

The building next to the mosque was gutted by fire Friday, shortly after the siege began. Each side blamed the other for setting the blaze. One person was killed in an initial exchange of gunfire, but there has been no shooting since early Saturday.