- (AFP) -- Fifteen people, including a rebel on a suicide
mission, were killed and 25 others injured in Indian Kashmir as militants
vowing revenge for the slaying of a commander attacked Indian troops in
waves.
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- The strikes coincided Tuesday with claims by the authorities
that Kashmir's Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla force had linked up with rebels
of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, which lost its chief commander, Gazi Baba, in
a weekend firefight with Indian forces.
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- The bloodletting that has left 35 people dead since Sunday
comes despite beefed-up security prompted by radio intercepts that Islamic
militants were planning to launch retaliatory assaults.
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- A spokesman for the paramilitary Border Security Force
(BSF) said one of two militants was shot dead after trying early Tuesday
to storm a fortified base in the Ishber locality of Srinagar, Kashmir's
summer capital.
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- "Alert guards shot dead one of the militants outside
the main gate," spokesman Tirtha Acharya said, adding the other is
believed to have escaped.
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- Two BSF personnel were injured in the militant firing.
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- The slain militant is believed to be a Pakistani and
a Jaish fighter, he said, a day after the BSF unspooled what it called
cross-border radio intercepts, cajoling guerrillas in the group to take
revenge for Baba's death.
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- Baba was on India's list of "most wanted" rebels
after New Delhi accused him of masterminding an attack on its national
parliament in December 2001 that killed 15 people, including the five attackers.
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- "Troops have been put on high alert after Baba's
death as radio intercepts of Jaish militants suggest they would launch
revenge attacks," Acharya said.
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- Despite heavy security, a civilian was killed and 21
others, including six soldiers, were injured in an explosion followed by
gunfire from militants Tuesday at an army convoy in south Kashmir, police
said.
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- The ambush occurred at Chursoo, 35 kilometers (22 miles)
south of Srinagar, when an army convoy was on the move towards the winter
capital of Jammu.
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- Chursoo road is part of the main 300 kilometer (186 mile)
highway connecting the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley with the Hindu-majority
Jammu region of the state and the rest of India.
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- Kashmir's dominant rebel group Hizbul Mujahedeen claimed
responsibility for the attack -- the third on the main highway since Monday.
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- In a separate incident, a mine was detected and defused
on the outskirts of Srinagar.
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- Troops, meanwhile, patrolled areas of Srinagar, including
streets around fortified state-owned radio and television buildings.
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- Militants early Tuesday blew up a part of a small bridge
at Lowdora village in southern Anantnag district, 95 kilometres (58 miles)
south of Srinagar, a police spokesman said. The attack disrupted traffic
on the main highway.
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- In violence Monday night, a group of militants killed
local politician Khadim Hussain and four others after storming his home
in the Banhihal area of Doda district, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south
of Srinagar.
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- In another incident, police shot dead five suspected
militants in Surankote area of the Poonch border district, 210 kilometres
(130 miles) west of Jammu, a police spokesman said.
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- Three policemen were also injured in the gunbattle, which
took place late Monday and ended Tuesday. One of them died in hospital
Tuesday, police said.
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- "The fresh violence is the manifestation of anger
by militants over Gazi Baba's death," a police officer told AFP at
the end of a bloody day on Monday during which 16 people died.
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- Two militants were killed and three policemen injured
in two separate clashes in Baramulla and Kathua districts Tuesday, police
said.
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- A 14-year insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir has
claimed more than 38,000 lives, according to Indian officials. Separatists
put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000.
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- Meanwhile, General N.C. Vij, chief of India's million-plus
army, set off Tuesday for Kashmir on a four-day tour, an official said
in New Delhi.
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- Vij will visit all the three regions -- Jammu, the Kashmir
valley and Ladakh region during his trip.
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