Yusuf Jameel SRINAGAR, May 31 (1990): The Kashmir Valley's teenaged new chief Muslim cleric appealed to the superpowers and Islamic nations on Thursday to help the Himalayan region gain independence from India. "We shall fight until we achieve our goal," Umar Farooq, 16, told a crowd estimated by reporters at more than 200,000 attending prayers for his assassinated father. "I appeal to (Soviet) President (Mikhail) Gorbachev, (U.S.) President George Bush and the leaders of Islamic nations...

SRINAGAR, May 30 (1990): Kashmiri Muslims postponed a prayer meeting in memory of a murdered religious leader on Wednesday after Indian authorities refused to relax a curfew. Tens of thousands of people from all over the Kashmir Valley had gathered in the city of Srinagar, heart of a revolt against Indian rule, to pray for Moulvi Mohammad Farooq. Farooq, hereditary leader of Kashmiri Muslims, was killed at his home on May 21 by unidentified gunmen. At least 50 people were killed when security forces opened fire on...

SRINAGAR, May 29 (1990): Tens of thousands of Moslems began gathering in Kashmir's summer capital on Tuesday to mourn slain religious leader Moulvi Mohammed Farooq while seven more deaths were reported in the state's anti-Indian revolt. An official spokesman in Srinagar said security forces shot dead six militants on Monday on the ceasefire line which divides disputed Kashmir into areas of Indian and Pakistani control. Police sources said militants killed a man and wounded his wife in Ganderbal, 22 km (14 miles) from...

JAMMU, May 27 (1990): At least 26 people were injured in clashes with Jammu and Kashmir police after Hindus called a general strike to protest against the resignation of the state's hardline governor, officials said on Sunday. Police used tear gas and fired guns in the air to disperse mobs who pelted government offices with stones during Saturday's strike in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, the officials said. Six people were injured in clashes with police when Hindus tried to march...

SRINAGAR, May 27 (1990): More than 30,000 Moslems, taking advantage of a break in a curfew imposed to control a secessionist campaign, gathered in Kashmir on Sunday to mourn about 50 people killed by security forces last week. The mourning took place in Jammu and Kashmir state's summer capital of Srinagar, while in the winter capital, Jammu, Hindus shut down shops and kept vehicles off the streets to protest against the resignation of the state governor. In Srinagar, the Moslem mourners placed wreaths and prayed at...

LONDON, May 27 (1990): The U.S. and Soviet governments fear nuclear war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir after intelligence reports that both countries are readying atomic arsenals, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said. Quoting unnamed U.S. intelligence and Defence Department sources, the newspaper said spy satellites had photographed armed convoys leaving Pakistani nuclear complexes at Kahuta, near Islamabad, and heading for military airfields. The film also showed what analysts believed to be nuclear bomb...

SRINAGAR, May 26 (1990): The new governor of India's Jammu and Kashmir state said on Saturday there would be no change in policy to combat a violent secessionist movement following the sudden removal of his hated predecessor. Former national intelligence chief Girish Saxena told reporters India's fight against militant Moslem secessionists would be a tough one. "It cannot be underestimated and we have no illusions, but what needs to be done will be done," Saxena said after taking the oath as governor of India's only...

SRINAGAR, May 25 (1990): Kashmiri Muslims campaigning for independence from India refused on Friday to install a successor to an assassinated religous leader until all his followers could attend. The government imposed a curfew on the entire Kashmir Valley except for an area in Srinagar's old city where the ceremony was due to take place on Friday. The 16-year-old son and hereditary successor of Moulvi Mohammed Farooq, killed on Monday by three unidentified gunmen, said his installation had been postponed...

NEW DELHI, May 25 (1990): The governor of Kashmir state resigned on Friday after his tough tactics failed to quell the Indian-ruled region's Moslem insurgency and was replaced immediately by India's former spy chief. Jagmohan, appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir only five months ago, was widely-reviled in India's only Moslem-majority state for what militants said were ruthless measures to crush the revolt against Indian rule that flared in January. He insisted his tough line was the only way to save the...

SRINAGAR, May 24 (1990): India's tough policy of force to suppress a secessionist movement in disputed Kashmir will continue until it succeeds, its creator said on Thursday. "I cannot think of any other manner than the course we have taken," said Jagmohan, governor of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Moslem-majority state, and part of the Kashmir region split between India and Pakistan. Senior government officials in Delhi say they believe if Jammu and Kashmir were allowed to secede, it would set a precedent that would...