SRINAGAR, June 30 (1991): Kashmiri militants who kidnapped two Swedish engineers said on Sunday that Indian security forces had shot and seriously wounded one of the hostages in a raid. The Moslem Janbaz (Crusaders) Force (MJF) said Jan-Ole Loman, 37, "received two bullets in his leg...(he) is being treated but since he has lost so much blood his condition is critical." The MJF seized Loman and Johan Jansson, 35, both working on a hydro-electric project, on March 31. It demanded an international inquiry into...

SRINAGAR, June 30 (1991): Kashmiri militants holding an Israeli hostage demanded on Sunday that a United Nations official come to collect him. "The U.N. should immediately send a representative to Kashmir so that the Israeli is handed over to him," the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) said in a telephone call to an international news agency. The militants said earlier they would release Yair Yitzhaki, 21, if found innocent following a JKLF investigation into the presence of Israelis in Kashmir. Yitzhaki...

SRINAGAR, June 28 (1991):- An Israeli tourist held by Kashmiri militants said in a letter to his family on Friday that his captors were friendly people fighting for a cause. A copy of the letter was delivered to an international news agency. In it, Yair Yitzhaki, held by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), said: "From the beginning, people (were) very nice to me ... They do not hit me and gave bread and tea." Yitzhaki, who described one of his captors as an "angel", said he had been taken to meet the...

JERUSALEM, June 27 (1991): Israelis visiting India were urged by their government on Thursday to avoid the Moslem area of Kashmir, where six Israelis were kidnapped. "We have requested that all Israeli tourists in the Kashmir region leave, not other parts of India, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Chaim Shacham. "We have also asked local authorities to assist and provide police protection for Israelis exiting." "A representative from our consulate in Bombay has departed to the site of the incident 1,800 kms (1,100...

SRINAGAR, June 27 (1991): Kashmiri separatists siezed a group of Israelis on Thursday but they wrestled guns away from the kidnappers and fought back, police in the Indian-ruled region said. One Israeli was killed and three wounded in the ensuing gunfight, which ended with one Israeli missing, Kashmir police chief J.N. Saksena said. The drama began around midnight when a group of militants boarded a houseboat on Srinagar's Dal Lake, once a popular tourist destination in mainly Moslem region before a major separatist...

STOCKHOLM, June 26(1991): Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson on Wednesday urged Kashmiri separatists to free two Swedish engineers held hostage since they were kidnapped on March 31. "I turn to you today with a personal plea to immediately free both Swedes, Johan Jansson and Jan-Ole Loman, who have been deprived of their freedom for nearly three months," Carlsson said in a statement. He added: "Jansson and Loman are innocent victims in a regional conflict. They were deprived of their freedom while working on a...

WASHINGTON, June 21 (1991): The State Department warned U.S. citizens on Friday not to travel to India's Kashmir valley due to recent terrorist activity and said they should only travel to the state of Punjab if absolutely necessary. "Although foreigners are not targeted by demonstrators, vehicles, including trains and buses, can be," the department's travel advisory said. "The recent kidnapping of five foreigners by terrorists in Kashmir underscores the warning that Americans should avoid Kashmir until further...

SRINAGAR, June 18 (1991):Troops captured two Kashmiri militant leaders in the state's summer capital Srinagar on Tuesday and six people were killed in separatist violence, police said. Residents said troops in full battle dress had raided homes and arrested Mustaq Ahmed Butt, military commander of the Hezballah militant group, and his deputy Saiful Islam, along with members of other groups battling Indian rule. Hezballah insurgents promptly avenged the arrests by hurling grenades and spraying assault rifle fire at...

SRNAGAR, June 11 (1991): Security forces shot dead 17 civilians, including an elderly woman and a 10-year-old boy, in central Srinagar on Tuesday soon after an attack by secessionist militants, witnesses said. They said the security forces indiscriminately fired at people on the streets and inside shops in the crowded Nawab Bazar where militants struck at a security post. Reporters counted 17 bodies. Police said there might be more casualties. An unspecified number of people were being treated at the Srinagar state...

NEW DELHI, June 9 (1991): An Indian soldier was killed in a three-hour exchange of fire with Pakistani soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region, an Indian defence ministry spokesman said on Sunday. He said Friday's clash was started by Pakistani troops providing covering fire for militants crossing the ceasefire line into India's Jammu and Kashmir state, where extremists are fighting in a separatist revolt. "We retaliated and this went on for about two to three hours," he said, adding: "There has been no escalation of...