NEW DELHI, April 30 (1993): The Kashmir administration on Friday sacked 20 of the policemen who went on strike to denounce the death of a colleague in the custody of Indian security forces, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. PTI said the decision, taken at a high-level meeting in Srinagar chaired by Kashmir police Chief Balwinder Singh Bedi, was effective immediately. PTI quoted unidentified sources as saying "disciplinary action" would also be taken against "a number of police personnel including senior...

NEW DELHI, April 29 (1993): Some of the 2,000  policemen disarmed by the army returned to work in Srinagar on Thursday as Kashmiri authorities met in the state capital to discuss the removal of lawmen who led a mutiny. Officials said meanwhile that Ashok Patil, the chief of the Border Security Force (BSF) at the center of the revolt in the strife-torn northern Indian state, would be transferred to New Delhi. The death of a Moslem police constable at BSF hands triggered a strike and six-day takeover of the police...

JAMMU, April 28 (1993): Security forces shot dead three prisoners after a riot broke out on Tuesday at a jail in northern Jammu and Kashmir state, the United News of India (UNI) said. The news agency quoted Police Chief S.S. Wazir as saying the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police shot the prisoners after several inmates tried to break out of the high-security jail near the state's winter capital of Jammu. Wazir said some militants and "hardcore criminals" had broken open the inner gate and marched to the main door...

SRINAGAR, April 28 (1993): Indian border guards took charge of law enforcement in this tense Kashmir city Wednesday after army troops crushed a six-day police rebellion without firing a shot in a swift pre-dawn operation. Hundreds of Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in battle fatigues had taken control of Kashmir police headquarters by the time the first Moslem prayer call for the day was heard in this hub of Moslem secessionism. BSF troops in trucks and jeeps cruised deserted streets of the curfew-bound city as...

SRINAGAR, April 27 (1993): Some 3,000 striking Kashmiri policemen on Tuesday took over their headquarters complex in Srinagar, which includes barracks, in a continuing protest over the death of a colleague, witnesses said. They said the army and paramilitary police took up position around the police complex in Srinagar and threatened to storm it unless those inside opened the gates. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)

DUROO, April 26,(1993): Syed Ali Shah Geelani is a solemn, grey-bearded man with twinkly eyes. He receives visitors at his home in Duroo village in India's Kashmir valley with elaborate courtesy, giving them a blanket to ward off the cold of the rain-drenched morning before offering tea, spiced boiled eggs and plates of biscuits. But Geelani is also the implacable leader of the movement to merge Indian-ruled Kashmir with neighbouring Pakistan. He was freed last year after two years in Indian jails on charges of...

SRINAGAR, April 25 (1993): The hijacker of an Indian airliner was killed after being captured by commandos who freed all 140 other people aboard unharmed on Sunday, passengers said. Asif Khanday, a doctor on the flight, said he saw the man being led off the plane after the commandos stormed it at Amritsar airport in the northern state of Punjab. "He was taken down and then we heard gunshots," Khanday told reporters at the airport in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir where the passengers were...

AMRITSAR, April 25 (1993): An Indian Airlines plane Sunday took off from here for Kashmir's summer capital of Srinagar carrying the passengers of a Boeing that was hijacked by a gunman and later stormed by Indian commandos. The relief plane, which arrived from New Delhi, left the Raja Sansi airport in this Sikh holy city at 10.20 a.m. (0450 GMT), more than four hours behind schedule, airport officials said. It was not immediately clear if all the 135 passengers who were hijacked Saturday while flying from New Delhi to...

SRINAGAR, April 24,(1993): Striking Kashmir police won wide support on Saturday for their protests against the death of a colleague detained by the Indian army. Shopkeepers closed their shutters and government workers stayed at home in the main towns of the Kashmir valley, where the army and paramilitary police are fighting back a bloody rebellion in largely Hindu India's only Moslem-majority state. Many police stations were deserted and government installations, prime militant targets, mostly unguarded. (For...

SRINAGAR, April 24 (1993): A Kashmiri separatist group here denied Saturday that the hijacker of an Indian Airlines plane was a member of their organization. "We categorically reject that we have done this hijacking," said a spokesman from the Hezbul Mujahedeen after a man who hijacked a Boeing 737 claimed to be a military commander of the outlawed secessionist group. The Boeing 737 carrying 135 passengers and six crew was hijacked to the northern city of Amritsar on Saturday while on a flight from New Delhi to...