SRINAGAR, June 30 (1994): A letter allegedly written by an Indian minister, urging the return of Hindu refugees to the troubled state of Kashmir, provoked a stern warning from Moslem rebels here Thursday. The powerful Hizbul Mujahedeen group warned the Indian authorities in a statement that it would fight "tooth and nail", any attempt to bring "Indian agents" to the Kashmir Valley in the guise of refugees. Many Hindus fled Kashmir following attacks on them by Moslem militants who have been fighting against Indian rule...

SRINAGAR, June 26 (1994): Ten Moslem rebels were killed Sunday during a raid in the southern Kashmir town of Anantnag, where the assassination of a top Islamic cleric last week sparked general strikes, police said here. Five Kashmiri militants, four Afghan mercenaries and a Pakistani died during a raid on a rebel hide-out, they said. Three machine guns were recovered from the site. The operation, which came after a tip-off, followed a military crackdown in Anantnag where unidentified gunmen last Monday shot dead...

NEW DELHI, June 24 (1994): Amnesty International urged Kashmiri militants on Friday to free all hostages, saying several Indian nationals were still being held. "Amnesty International welcomes the release yesterday of two Britons," the London-based human rights organisation said in a statement faxed to the Reuters bureau in New Delhi. "But many more Indian nationals (are) still being held hostage by different groups in Jammu and Kashmir and should be released immediately." The Moslem separatist Harakatul Ansar...

JAMMU, June 23 (1994): Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched its campaign on Thursday to fill up Kashmiri jails with protestors opposed to the government's handling of a four-year-old separatist violence in the Himalayan region. Police picked up BJP President Lal Krishan Advani at the head what he said were more than 2,000 followers. They were arrested with Advani for violating prohibitory orders in Jammu, the Hindu-majority winter capital of India's Moslem-majority Jammu and Kashmir state. The BJP...

SRINAGAR, June 23 (1994): Two Britons captured by Kashmiri militants were released unharmed on Thursday, witnesses said. Kim Housego, 16, and David Mackie, 36, seized by the Harakatul Ansar militant group on June 6, were released to a group of Kashmiri and foreign journalists in Kashmir's Anantnag district, a Reuters correspondent, part of the team, said. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)

SRINAGAR, June 22 (1994): A Kashmiri militant group said on Wednesday that Moslem separatists who seized two Britons earlier this month would release them within a day. "It will be either this evening or tomorrow morning," an official of a separatist group, apparently involved in the negotiations to free the Britons said. The official did not want his group to be identified. Kim Housego, 16, and video director David Mackie, 36, were abducted by the Harakatul Ansar militant group during a trekking holiday near...

ANANTNAG, June 21 (1994): A general strike called to mourn the death of a slain Moslem cleric and politician on Tuesday paralysed the Kashmir valley. At Anantnag, about 55 km (35 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, at least 150,000 people gathered for the funeral of Qazi Nissar Ahmed Bin Mohammad who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Sunday night. The Qazi was buried in his ancestral graveyard amid slogans - "we want freedom", and "there's no god but Allah". The 42-year-old theologian, who had...

NEW DELHI, June 21 (1994):Authorities named a member of Kashmir's biggest pro-Pakistan militant group as the killer of a prominent cleric and politician, while the group blamed security forces. A government spokesman, quoted by the Press Trust of India, said on Monday that one of the attackers who killed Qazi Nissar Ahmed Bin Mohammad had been identified as Fayaz Ahmed Mir, a "platoon commander" in the fundamentalist Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The group denied the killing and accused Indian security forces of gunning down...

SRINAGAR, June 21 (1994):Officials have established contacts with Moslem guerrillas who kidnapped two British hikers earlier this month in Kashmir, official sources said here Tuesday. The sources said a senior police officer set up contacts with the Islamic Harkat-ul Ansar following hectic negotiations with the guerrilla group responsible for the June 7 abduction of the two Britons. They said the development has "brightened" chances of freeing Kim Housego, 16, and David Mackie, 36 from Pashtu-speaking rebels who took...

SRINAGAR, June 20 (1994): A prominent Kashmiri politician was shot dead by an unidentified gunman after being lured from his home, police said on Monday. Separatist militants fighting New Delhi's rule in the Himalayan region accused Indian security forces of the killing. Police said the body of Qazi Nissar Ahmed Bin Mohammad was found riddled with bullets on Monday morning at Dayalgam near his native town of Anantnag, about 55 km (34 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. The 42-year-old Moslem cleric,...