NEW DELHI, Aug 30 (1993): At least 36 people died in fierce gun battles overnight in parts of the northern Indian state of Kashmir, state television and the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Monday. Twenty-nine of those killed were identified as Moslem militants belonging to separate organisations battling for Kashmir's secession from India. PTI said paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) troops shot dead eight Moslem rebels in an encounter in Baramulla, a rebel stronghold 100 kilometres (68 miles) northwest of...

NEW DELHI, Aug 29 (1993):troops fired on Moslem civilians who defied a ban on demonstrations to protest against the death of an arrested militant, Indian new agencies reported on Sunday. The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted an official spokesman as saying a woman was killed in the shooting in Baramullah district of Jammu and Kashmir state. It said the protest was sparked by the killing on Saturday of a militant named Abdul Rashid Shah. The official spokesman said Shah had been shot after opening fire on security...

NEW DELHI, Aug 29 (1993): Eleven Moslem militants and three troopers were among 20 people killed overnight in violence and a grenade attack in the northern Indian state of Kashmir, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said Sunday. The news agency also said the Moslem rebels Sunday freed Younis Geelani, a Kashmir University professor, following protests by teachers and students against the prominent academic's abduction two days ago. Sixteen other guerrillas including three senior rebel leaders were arrested in Kashmir...

NEW DELHI, Aug 28 (1993): The Indian parliament on Saturday approved an extension of New Delhi's direct rule over Jammu and Kashmir state for six more months, officials said. Kashmir, the only Moslem-majority state in predominantly Hindu India, has been under federal control since 1990 when its elected government was dismissed after a separatist uprising. More than 12,000 people are reported to have been killed since the revolt flared. Senior officials say Indian Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao's Congress...

SRINAGAR, Aug 27 (1993): Police imposed a curfew on Srinagar Friday and stepped up patrolling in the Kashmir summer capital to prevent planned protests, as nine people died overnight across the Indian state, police said. A militant Moslem faction, Tehreek-ul-Mujahedeen, called a protest against the alleged killing Thursday of two members by security troops in a crowded Srinagar district. Witnesses denied the police versions that two members of the group died after jumping out of a window to evade arrest, saying that...

NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (1993): Ten Moslem rebels were among 16 people killed in two days of violence in the strife-torn northern state of Kashmir, the Press Trust of India reported Thursday. Three militants and two border guards were killed and five injured in the city during a gun battle Thursday following a raid by the troopers in the downtown Daribal-Khanyar area of Srinagar city, the news agency said. Troopers ringed the neighbourhood, reputed to be a militant hub, after the incident and arrested an unspecified number...

MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 24 (1993): Militant leaders in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir say sentiment is growing here for people to join an uprising against Indian rule on the other side of the divided Himalayan region. They allege that Indian troops have killed, tortured or raped thousands of people in a drive against Moslem separatists, enraging relatives and kinsmen across the border in Pakistan's Azad (free) Kashmir. "The youths from Azad Kashmir are demanding that we provide weapons and training to participate in the...

NEW DELHI, Aug. 23 (1993): Hundreds of battle-hardened Afghan rebels have slipped into Jammu and Kashmir, the northern state, and are fighting alongside local Muslim separatists and raising the level of the insurgency against Indian troops, intelligence officials said today. "There are about 200 Afghans fighting in Kashmir but we believe that the total figure of foreign fighters is about 400," said an Indian security official, who is closely associated with intelligence operations in Kashmir. He said that...

NEW DELHI, Aug 23 (1993): A member of an International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) team, allowed to make a four-day visit to India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, said on Monday that it would release a report on the visit next spring. Sir William Goodhart, speaking for the four-member team, said a draft of the report would be sent to the Indian government before publication, for its comments. He told reporters in New Delhi that the ICJ was the first international group concerned with human rights to get permission...

JERUSALEM, Aug 19 (1993): Israel has warned its citizens to stay out of Kashmir where Moslem separatists have reportedly threatened to abduct travellers from the Jewish state. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's adviser on terrorism Yigal Karmon said in a statement late on Tuesday that the Hizbul- Mujahideen group had issued a warning to Israelis to stay out of the troubled Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. "The leader of the group known as 'Salah E-Din' instructed his activists to check the documents of all tourists and...