May 23, 2000: Assassination attempt on golf course in India

KASHMIR, INDIA – Some have said that watching golf is like watching paint dry – this still doesn’t mean you have to worry about a terrorist attack during a round.

For a lot of people I know retirement includes plans to spend a lot of time on the links – i.e. golf. No more waiting in long lines on the weekend to get 18 holes in: you can show up on a Wednesday at 10 AM and get right on the first tee. For many this is their version of paradise.

Not me.

I come from a golfing family – my father and two brothers were avid duffers – and I really did try it when I was young. Alas, it never took and I cannot say I enjoyed the continuing frustration of trying to knock a little white ball into an only slightly less little hole a gazillion metres away. Nope, I have not golfed in more than thirty years and have no intention of ever getting back into it.

Still I cannot deny this pleasure for others. It would be nice, though, if one could get through a round without having to endure a terrorist attack.

On this day in 2000

Hizbul Mujahideen took responsibility for a bomb that went off on a golf course where India’s Chief Minister for Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, had been playing all day. The blast actually went off in the middle of the night and as a result no one was hurt.

We are fighting Pakistan’s war in Kashmir and if it withdraws its support, the war would be fought inside Pakistan.

Hizbul Mujahideen statement

I’ve had some very lousy golf rounds but never one where a bomb went off. Then again, I have never played golf in the middle of the night!

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