Unidentified terrorists on Thursday night killed three young girls in Thanamandi area of Rajouri district in Jammu division for not wearing burqas (veils), official sources said on Friday.

A group of terrorists attacked Mohammed Sadiq's house in Hast village late on Thursday night and killed his 20-year-old daughter Nosen Kousar.

Then they went to Khalid Ahmed's house in the same village and took away his 22-year-old daughter Tahira Parveen and later beheaded her, the sources said.

Later, the terrorists went to Mohammed Rafiq's house and killed his daughter Shehnaaz Akhtar, they added.

The incident has caused a lot of resentment among the villagers, official sources said adding a police party had been rushed to the village for investigations.

They said posters by the Lashkar-e-Jabbar (LeJ), an off-shoot of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT), had been appearing in educational institutions in Rajouri district for the past one week asking Muslim women and girls to wear burqas and strictly follow the purdah system.

The outfit has also asked teachers to wear sherwanis and threatened to take action against those who did not follow their directions.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002