NEW DELHI, June 27 (1996):New Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda met with Moslem separatist leaders from Kashmir for talks aimed at restoring peace in the strife-torn Himalayan province, officials and newspapers said Thursaday. The closed-door talks on Wednesday between Gowda, who heads his 27-day-old United Front coalition government, and a forum of Moslem rebels was the first such meeting between an Indian premier and Kashmiri separatists since 1989. Officials said the two sides met for the talks in the residence of...

SRINAGAR, May 30 (1996): At least two people were killed and 35 injured in gunbattles and police action as the troubled Kashmir region ended voting on Thursday in the final phase of India's general elections, witnesses and officials said. Election officials reported a 37 percent turnout in Srinagar and over 50 percent in Udhampur, the two constituencies which voted. Scores of people were arrested during the day, which saw shooting between security forces and militants and anti-India protest marches. Some residents...

SRINAGAR, May 29 (1996): An influential Kashmiri separatist group on Wednesday urged rebels fighting for secession from India to avoid violence during Thursday's polls and allow people to express their opposition to the elections. "We have made it sure that not a bullet is shot, not a bomb exploded and nothing goes wrong with the (election) process because Indians would say it was the militants who created problems for the people," senior All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference leader Abdul Ghani Bhat told...

NEW DELHI, May 28 (1996): An Indian attack helicopter was missing on Friday after it came under fire during a mission to flush out guerrillas on the Indian side of Kashmir, a defence ministry spokesman said. "A MI-17 helicopter which was participating in the morning operations came under fire north of Drass, 6-7 kms (3.75-4.4 miles) inside the line of control," the official said. Another defence official in Kashmir said the helicopter had been shot down between the Kargil and Drass sectors. The defence ministry...

SRINAGAR, May 28 (1996): Fireworks crackled around streets in Kashmir after Pakistan's nuclear tests Thursday, as separatist leaders called for the troubled province to be put back on the world's agenda. Sporadic bangs from crackers echoed around Srinagar and other towns after Indian state television announced the Pakistani blasts, before driving rain drove residents indoors, witnesses said. "Of course people are jubilant here," Mansoor Anjum, a local newspaper editor, told AFP. "But the very news is making me...

SRINAGAR, May 28 (1996):Election campaigning ended in the troubled Kashmir Valley on Tuesday, hit by a general strike and attempts by militants to disrupt voting on Thursday. Most shops and businesses remained closed in the valley's biggest city, Srinagar, during the second day of a four-day strike called by separatist rebels who are fighting for independence or merger with neighbouring Pakistan. Separatist guerrillas fired a rocket at Hotel Welcome, a popular Srinagar hotel, early on Tuesday. No one was injured,...

SRINAGAR, May 28 (1996):Rebels fired a rocket at a hotel housing doctors and journalists here Tuesday in an attack linked to the last leg of elections in the troubled Indian state of Kashmir, police said. They said the 5:00 a.m. attack on the Welcome Hotel caused no injuries but sparked a brief panic in the hotel, which houses doctors brought here on election duty as well as an office of the Red Cross. Police said there were no claims of responsibility for the attack, which came on the second day of a four-day general...

SRINAGAR, May 27 (1996): Kashmiri militants hurled grenades at three security patrols as tight security blanketed Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, ahead of the final phase of India's elections. Police officials said three houses were also burnt in neighbouring Sopore district during an exchange of fire between militants and paramilitary troops. "There was no loss of life in any of these incidents," a police official said. Monday was the first day of a four-day strike launched by separatist...

SRINAGAR, May 25 (11996): A bomb killed one person and injured 46 on Saturday as the troubled Jammu and Kashmir region prepared for the final round of polling in India's general elections, police said. The bomb exploded in a busy market place in the town of Doda, said police in Jammu city, the state's winter capital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police officials said the bomb appeared aimed at preventing the final round of polling in the mainly Moslem region, where an insurrection against Indian...

SRINAGAR, May 24 (1996): The four Western tourists held hostage by separatist guerrillas in India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state are believed still to be alive, the most senior Indian army officer in Kashmir said on Friday. "We believe the hostages are still alive, we have reasons," Lieutenant General Jagdish Singh Dhillon told Reuters in an interview. Americans Donald Hutchings and John Childs and Britons Keith Mangan and Paul Wells were abducted by Al-Faran militants while trekking in the Himalayan mountains...