A hardline Islamic militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir Monday said Muslims had a religious duty to protect non-Muslims.
"As per the principles of Islam, protecting minority community members is part of our duty," Commander Idrees of Lashkar-e-Taiba said in a statement Monday.
Idrees is Lashkar's commander in the Muslim-dominated south Kashmir -- where 24 Hindus were massacred by unidentified gunmen on March 23 in the village of Nadi Marg. The Indian army has blamed Lashkar and another hardline group Jaish-e-Mohammad for the attack.
His statement comes a few days after the founder and former head of Lashkar-e-Taiba said "killing Hindus" was the best approach to the 56-year-old dispute between Pakistan and India over Kashmir.
"We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir," Hafiz Saeed said Wednesday.
Lashkar and Jaish -- also blamed by India for an attack on its parliament in December 2001 -- denied they were to blame for the Nadi Marg attack and accused the security forces of carrying it out to malign the militant movement.
"The members of the minority community should continue to live in Kashmir without any apprehensions," Idrees said. "Islam does not permit targetting non-Muslims."
Indian officials say the rebels carried out the massacre to discourage Kashmiri Hindus returning to the Kashmir Valley.
More than 200,000 Hindus have left Kashmir for the Hindu-dominated Jammu region or other parts of India since the anti-Indian Muslim rebellion broke out in 1989.
The unrest has so far left more than 38,000 people dead. Separatists put the toll twice as high.