ISLAMABAD, June 28 (1992): Pakistan on Sunday banned a peace conference called by Kashmiri separatists, saying it would harm a Moslem uprising in Indian-ruled Kashmir. A government spokesman said the meeting called by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) for July 1-3 would deflect world attention from "Indian repression and terror." The spokesman, quoted by the official APP news agency, said the JKLF had not consulted Islamabad when it called the meeting at Rawalakot in Pakistani-ruled Azad (free)...

SRINAGAR, June 25 (1992):Border guards shot dead four persons and wounded 21 others early Thursday when they opened fire to try to break up a protest march in a Kashmir town, police sources said. Border Security Force (BSF) personnel fired at some 600 Moslem protestors, mostly women, in Baramulla when they marched through the streets to condemn the arrest of a suspected militant. The paramilitary troops fired into the crowd after warning shots in the air failed to disperse the women, the sources said. An official...

SRINAGAR, June 24 (1992): Police in India's Jammu and Kashmir state are investigating charges of sexual assault and looting by federal para-military forces who allegedly went berserk when militants attacked their patrol, officials said on Wednesday. They said police in Srinagar, capital of the troubled Himalayan state, received complaints against members of the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) after they allegedly went out of control on Tuesday. The officials said no CRPF forces were hurt in the attack. The...

SRINAGAR, June 17 (1992): Gunmen killed Kashmir carpet dealer Nazir Ahmed Siddique, who negotiated the release of several prominent hostages seized by militants fighting the Indian government, family members said on Wednesday. Siddique's son Aamir told reporters he heard shots near the house in Srinagar just before midnight on Tuesday, but thought they were from outside. Aamir said he was stunned to wake up on Wednesday morning and find his father and mother lying dead in the house. No one immediately claimed...

SRINAGAR, June 14 (1992): Eight people, including a woman, were killed when two groups of separatist Kashmiri militants clashed in Jammu and Kashmir state on Sunday, police said. They said they did not know what prompted the clash at Awantipora town, 34 km (20 miles) south of Srinagar, the state's summer capital. Fifteen people were injured in the skirmish. Witnesses said fighting broke out between members of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Hezb-ul-Mujahideen over who should get the skins of animals...

ISLAMABAD, June 9 (1992): A Kashmiri group that has led an armed rebellion against India announced on Tuesday that it wants to hold a conference of political leaders next month to solve the issue peacefully. Ammanullah Khan, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), told reporters that a "conference of notables representing all political factions, all regions and all religious sects" in Kashmir would be held from July 1-3. It would be held in the town of Rawlakot in the Pakistan-controlled part of the...

SRINAGAR, June 5 (1992): Kashmiri militant groups called a token strike on Friday to express solidarity with Sikh separatists observing the anniversary of the invasion of Sikhdom's holiest shrine by Indian troops eight years ago. Several Moslem separatist groups in Kashmir said they sent messages of sympathy to Sikh militants after the Sikh guerrilla group, Dashmesh Regiment, urged a strike in Kashmir. Sikhs in India's agriculture-rich Punjab state have been fighting for a decade for independence from India. Militants...

JAMMU, June 3 (1992): Eight people were killed and seven injured in a night-long skirmish on the Kupwara section of the Kashmir border, a Border Security Force (BSF) spokesman said here Wednesday. The spokesman said two of the dead and three of the wounded were BSF troopers whose patrols intercepted and clashed with armed inflitrators from the Pakistan side of the border in the Krishna Ganga Valley. Six infiltrators were killed and four injured while 13 others managed to flee back across the border, he said. The...

SRINAGAR, June 2 (1992): Moslem militants have freed a senior police officer after keeping him hostage for a record 133 days, Indian officials said Tuesday. The outlawed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which is campaigning for Kashmir's independence, released Deputy Inspector General Hafizullah Dar late Monday unharmed and without any condition, state officials here said. Dar, who headed the security wing of the Kashmir police, said he was "kept in good atmosphere" by the guerrillas since his abduction on...