On 1 May 2006, militants killed 35 persons belonging to the Hindu community in calibrated attacks in two incidents at Doda and Udhampur. In Doda district, the militants attacked two remote villages more than 25 kms away from Doda at midnight; forced the victims out of their homes, lined them up and shot 22 persons. In Udhampur district, militants abducted 12 people from the Basantgarh area and killed them during the day.

Though no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, undoubtedly, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) is behind these attacks. Lashkar has been carrying out attacks against the minority community inside J&K and majority community outside the state, mainly to create communal mayhem all over the country. For the LeT, this has been a major strategy.

Why did the Lashkar carry out these attacks at this juncture? An analysis of Lashkar's recent attacks would prove that the militant group always carries out a spectacular attack either before or after an important event in J&K. Some of the recent attacks would prove this point. They are: attack on the tourism centre in Srinagar just before the inauguration of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, the suicide attack immediately before Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as the new chief minister in November 2005 and the assassination of J&K minister for education when India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris were working closely to address the immediate problems faced by the earthquake.

The successful conclusion of by-elections without any major violent incidents and the fact that the moderate Hurriyat leaders were to meet the Prime Minister were two events of significance. The Doda and Udhampur attacks are mainly aimed to upset any positive feeling to emerge from the aforementioned events.

Is there a larger sinister plan beyond these narrow political objectives? Are these attacks part of any efforts to communalise Doda, thus leading to ethnic cleansing or driving the Hindus away from this region? Undoubtedly, there have been major communal attacks in Jammu, Doda, Rajouri and Poonch regions in the last few years. In 2002, the Ragunath temple in Jammu was attacked twice. Outside these regions there have been attacks on the minority community: in 2003, 24 Kashmiri Pandits were killed in Nadimarg in Pulwama district, when the PDP's much publicised 'healing touch' policy and the call for the return of migrants were gaining political significance. Hence, the communal aspects of Doda attacks vis-a-vis the political aspects, should neither be exagerated or under estimated.

Providing security to the minority community or accusing the state for its failure after every major attack are two issues that need to be addressed outside political rhetoric and immediate emotional reactions.