- (AFP) -- Eleven Islamic militants, two Indian border
guards and a policeman were killed in shoot-outs in Indian-administered
Kashmir, police said Saturday.
-
- Two militants and two Indian Border Security Force (BSF)
personnel, including an officer, were killed and another BSF guard injured
in a fierce overnight clash on Friday in the dense forest area of Gool
in southern Udhampur district, a spokesman said.
-
- "Both the slain militants are Pakistani nationals
and belong to Jaish-e-Mohammed group," the spokesman said.
-
- Jaish is one of two groups that New Delhi blames for
an attack on its parliament in December 2001 that killed nine people and
sent tensions rocketing between India and Pakistan.
-
- The gunbattle occurred after the Indian guards fanned
out to track down militants who had detonated a time-bomb, the spokesman
said. The bomb created a huge crater, but did not cause any casualties.
-
- Two other militants, one a Pakistani and one a Kashmiri,
were killed Saturday in the central Pulwama district, the BSF said. Indian
security forces recovered arms and ammunition.
-
- Three militants were killed in the Budgam district on
Saturday, while security forces shot dead another militant overnight in
the northern Kashmir district of Kupwara, police said.
-
- Security forces also shot down three militants of the
Lashkar-e-Taiba group in Kandikote area in southern Kashmir on Saturday
afternoon, police added.
-
- Meanwhile, militants killed a Muslim police inspector,
Bashir Ahmed, late Friday near the township of Bijbehara, 40 kilometres
(25 miles) south of Indian Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, police said.
-
- Ahmed was working with the police's counter-insurgency
wing, the Special Operations Group (SOG), and was driving to an SOG camp
when militants shot him dead. They escaped with his pistol.
-
- Rebel group Jamiat-ul Mujahedin claimed responsibility
for the killing.
-
- There are nearly a dozen militant groups fighting against
Indian rule in the region. Most of them want Kashmir to merge with neighbouring
Pakistan.
-
- India says more than 37,500 people have died in Indian
Kashmir since the eruption of an anti-Indian rebellion in 1989. Separatists
put the number at twice as high.
-
-
-
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence
you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any
way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the
prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
