JAMMU, March 26 (1991): Thousands of people mostly Hindus stoned police and ransacked the main police station of Kashmir's winter capital Jammu on Tuesday, accusing police of letting militants escape detention. Police fired into the air and lobbed teargas shells to drive off the crowd after at least a dozen policemen and a senior official were injured, officials said. Youths took to the streets of the city when rumours spread that police had let suspected separatist militants escape from the station's...

JAMMU, March 26 (1991): Thousands of Hindus stoned police and ransacked the main police station of Indian Kashmir's winter capital Jammu on Tuesday, accusing police of letting Moslem militants escape detention. Police fired into the air and lobbed teargas shells to drive off the crowd after at least a dozen policemen and a senior official were injured, officials said. Youths took to the streets of the city, a Hindu enclave in India's only Moslem-majority state,...

NEW DELHI, March 25 (1991): At least 16 people were killed in Indian-controlled Kashmir over the weekend after an avalanche struck a village, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said on Monday. It said several houses collapsed in Laridora village in Baramulla district of India's Jammu and Kashmir state. So far 16 bodies had been dug out of the debris. The army was helping in rescue operations, the news agency said. PTI quoted an official spokesman as saying the avalanche struck the village on Saturday night after heavy...

Yusuf Jameel SRINAGAR, March 24 (1991): Preliminary investigations suggest charges that Indian soldiers gang-raped 53 Kashmiri women were untrue and were prompted by separatist militants, a senior official said on Sunday. Vijay Kapoor told reporters the long gap between the alleged rapes on Feburary 23 and the first report of them on March 7 suggested the allegations "cannot be believed" and were "an afterthought under pressure from the...

JAMMU, March 22 (1991): At least four people were killed and about 50 injured when a bomb exploded in the compound of the main mosque in Jammu during Friday prayers, witnesses and hospital sources said. Police in the city, winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state where Moslems are in revolt against Indian rule, confirmed three people were killed and 30 injured. Police said the blast was caused by a time bomb planted under a tree in the compound where 5,000...

Yusuf Jameel SRINAGAR, March 16 (1991): Thousands of Indian troops searched homes for militants in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Saturday and official sources said 20 people were killed in clashes near the Pakistani border. There has been a surge in attacks by separatists in Srinagar and in the northwestern district of Baramulla where the sources said 20 people had been killed in a week of violence which began around March 5. The sources said...

ISLAMABAD, March 25 (1991): Kashmiri militants fighting Indian rule said on Monday they would risk death by storming across a ceasefire line to protest a perceived lack of support for their cause from Pakistan. The Pakistan-based United Jihad Council alliance of Moslem militants said in a statement its followers would cross the line dividing Kashmir on April 3 at the Chakothi frontier post after a march from Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-ruled part of the disputed Himalayan state. April 3 is the 17th day of...

Yusuf Jameel SRINAGAR, March 10 (1991): At least seven people were killed in separatist violence in Kashmir on Sunday and security sources reported unprecedented battles between militants and Indian troops near the Pakistan border. Police said three bystanders and a policeman were killed in crossfire when militants battled security forces in Baramulla, 55 km (35 miles) north of Srinagar. Two civilians died in crossfire in Anantnag, south of Srinagar, and militants shot a young woman dead...

SRINAGAR, March 8 (1991): Leading Kashmiri politician Saifuddin Soz said on Friday his pregnant daughter, kidnapped by militants 10 days ago, finally arrived home 15 hours after her release was announced. A police spokesman said on Thursday night Soz's 29-year-old daughter, Naheeda Imtiaz, kidnapped by the Jammu and Kashmir Students' Liberation Front (JKSLF), had been freed. "She is with us," Soz said by telephone from the home of Imtiaz's parents-in law on Friday morning. He said she had only just turned up, 15...

SRINAGAR, March 7 (1991): Kashmiri separatists released on Thursday a politician's daughter they kidnapped nine days ago, a police spokesman said. Government sources said "some militant prisoners" were set free in the old part of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state and heart of an uprising against Indian rule. Authorities extended a curfew relaxation until 9 p.m. (1530 GMT), apparently to facilitate release of the prisoners. The Jammu and Kashmir Students Liberation Front (JKSLF) had demanded the...