- SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Three
securitymen were among 14 killed in overnight clashes in Indian-controlled
Kashmir in a fresh surge of militant-linked violence belying the promised
healing touch by the region's new leader.
-
- In a separate incident on Sunday, the state's rural development
minister survived an attempt on his life, police said.
-
- Peerzada Mohammed Sayeed was on his way home when suspected
militants opened fired at his motorcade near Kokernag in the southern Anantnag
district.
-
- "The fire was returned by his security guards,"
a police spokesman said, adding there were no casualties.
-
- Suspected Islamic militants overnight shot dead two policemen
in two busy markets of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir.
-
- Another policeman was injured in the attacks and was
being treated in Srinagar's main hospital, police said.
-
- In Anantnag township, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south
of Srinagar, security forces shot dead a deranged man they had mistaken
for a militant, police added.
-
- In the neighbouring Tral area of the southern Pulwama
district, gunmen shot dead an employee of Kashmir's main jail, police said.
-
- Suspected militants also shot dead a Muslim man and a
woman in the village near Tral township late Saturday, police said.
-
- Police said the victims were labelled "security
informers" by the militants.
-
- Suspected rebels also killed a Muslim shopkeeper Abdul
Aziz in downtown Srinagar, police said.
-
- A security force officer and a militant were killed in
overnight clashes in northern Kupwara district, which borders Pakistan-administered
Kashmir.
-
- Indian troops shot dead two militants in a fierce gunbattle
in the Poonch district near the de facto border dividing India and Pakistan.
-
- Three more people died elsewhere in Kashmir, police said,
but did not give details.
-
- More than 37,500 people have died in Kashmir since the
start of an anti-Indian rebellion in 1989. Separatists put the toll twice
as high.
-
- Nearly a dozen guerrilla groups are fighting for Kashmir's
independence or merger with Pakistan.
-
- India accuses Pakistan of arming and funding the rebellion,
but Islamabad denies the charge and says it gives only moral and diplomatic
support to militant groups waging an armed insurgency in Indian Kashmir.
-
- Kashmir's newly-elected chief minister, Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed, who was sworn in on November 2, has promised a "healing touch"
to the people of the strife-torne region and restore peace.
-
- He favours unconditional talks with separatists and has
started freeing political prisoners.
-
- But the violence has raged unabated in Kashmir.
-
-
- Copyright © 2001 AFP
|
