NEW DELHI, April 29 (1995): India is expected to announce plans soon for holding elections in the strife-torn northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, under direct federal rule since a rebellion broke out in 1990, officials said on Saturday. They said the government was working on a set of proposals for holding elections after a five-year period of direct federal rule expires on July 18. Officials said the Indian parliament would be required to pass a law for any further extension of New Delhi's direct rule in Kashmir,...

NEW DELHI, April 28 (1995): Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao said Friday he would soon unveil strategies to restore strife-torn Kashmir to normality, vowing to replace an unpopular anti-terror law passed a decade ago. Addressing parliament, the 73-year-old prime minister said his four-year-old government would soon make "clear-cut proposals" to stem separatist strife in Kashmir. In a traditional thanksgiving speech, he said: "The government has taken note of the desire for more autonomy expressed by some Kashmiri...

NEW DELHI, April 27 (1995): A six-member team of Western envoys met a separatist leader as they began a five-day fact-finding visit to the troubled Kashmir valley on Thursday, the Press Trust of India said. The news agency said the delegation that comprised ambassadors to India from Germany, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Britain and France met 41-year-old Shabir Shah, who was released from jail by India last year, in Srinagar. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)

NEW DELHI, April 26 (1995): Fifty-six Moslem militants have died in a week-long gunbattle with Indian troops in the troubled northern state of Kashmir, the Press Trust of India quoted officials as saying Wednesday. The reports said the "infiltrators" -- the official term for Pakistani militants and foreign mercenaries -- were killed in a continuing firefight with Indian troops which started last Wednesday in the northern Uri district. However, a defence spokesman told the news agency in the state summer capital...

SRINAGAR, April 25 (1995): Indian troops have closed in on a sacred town in Kashmir where Moslem guerrillas have been holed up for more than a month, police said. Soldiers and militants exchanged fire at the weekend after government forces entered the outskirts of Charar-e-sharief, 30 miles (50 km) from Srinagar, summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, they said late on Monday. A policeman was killed as edgy troops fired inadvertently on a police bus coming out of Charar-e-sharief late on Sunday, officials...

NEW DELHI, April 23 (1995):At least 18 people were killed in clashes between militants and security forces as a strike in protest against an attack on a prominent lawyer paralysed Kashmir on Sunday, news agencies said. The United News of India said 23 militants were among 28 people killed in the preceding 24 hours. The Press Trust of India put the figure at 18 dead, including 14 separatists. Business activity came to a standstill in the region's summer capital Srinagar and all main towns of the Kashmir valley in...

SRINAGAR, April 22 (1995): A prominent lawyer and separatist leader was shot by unidentified gunmen on Saturday in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. Mian Abdul Qayyum, president of the Kashmir Bar Association, was shot once in the abdomen outside his house near the summer capital Srinagar, family members said. He was taken to the city's main hospital where doctors operated on him. Doctors said he was in stable condition. Police blamed secessionist militants but separatist groups accused...

NEW DELHI, April 21 (1995): Foreign tourists are being offered insurance coverage of up to $1 million each to visit India's Jammu and Kashmir state, a Tourism Department official on Friday said he had been told. Kashmir's Director of Tourism Mohammed Ashraf quoted foreign tour-operators as saying they were offering the coverage as an incentive to draw visitors to a once popular tourist destination, now the scene of a bloody separatist uprising. "I have been told by tour operators in Malaysia and Australia that U.S....

NEW DELHI, April 19 (1995): Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani offered on Wednesday to mediate in a dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, but said the United States must not be allowed to get involved. The Iranian leader, speaking warmly of India's secular tradition at the end of a three-day visit, said the issue of Kashmir and a Hindu-Moslem dispute over the demolition of a mosque should not be used for propaganda against New Delhi. "I am not satisfied nor happy with the situation in Kashmir,"...

SRINAGAR, April 11 (1995): At least 16 people were killed in fighting between Indian troops and Kashmiri separatist guerrillas since Monday in Jammu and Kashmir state, police said on Tuesday. It said among them were five militants killed in a six-hour exchange of fire between army troops and separatists in northwestern Kupwara district close to India's border with Pakistan. Police said arms and hand grenades were recovered but it did not say if any soldiers were...