NEW DELHI, March 31 (1997): Arch-rivals India and Pakistan ended their first talks in three years here Monday and vowed to continue working for closer ties. Foreign Secretary Salman Haider, after the final session with Pakistan opposite number Shamshad Ahmed, said: "We have taken a step in all seriousness. We do intend to continue to address the issues" A joint statement said the pair had discussed "all outstanding issues of concern to both sides in a frank, cordial and constructive manner." It...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 30 (1997): The death toll from a car bomb explosion in a crowded bus station in the northern city of Jammu rose to 16 on Sunday and a senior official accused a Pakistani intelligence service of carrying out the attack. "This dastardly act was sponsored by Pakistan's ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and its agents with the intention of dividing the people on communal lines," Farooq Abdullah, chief minister...

JAMMU, March 29 (1997): At least 15 people died and 57 were injured when two powerful bombs exploded at a crowded bus station in this city in northern India's Jammu and Kashmir state, police said. The bombs went off just as several senior Jammu and Kashmir officials were driving along a street on the other side of the bus station towards a stadium a kilometre (half a mile) away to attend a concert. Police said none of the government officials was injured. A police spokesman said the first bomb, at about 6:40 p.m....

NEW DELHI, March 27 (1997): Separatist leaders from the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir on Thursday demanded a role in talks between India and Pakistan. Top-level talks between the two nations are scheduled to start in New Delhi on Friday. No agenda has been announced for the four-day discussions in the Indian capital, but Pakistan insists Kashmir is the "core issue". "The state of Jammu and Kashmir is not an integral part of India or Pakistan. Jammu and...

JAMMU, March 25 (1997): Police in Kashmir on Tuesday used tear gas and batons to break up an angry rally of 25,000 Hindus protesting last week's killing of seven Hindus, officials said. Nearly 30 people including some policemen were injured during the demonstrations by Pandits, or Hindus, in Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, they said. The protest follows Friday's killing by unidentified gunmen of seven Kashmiri Pandits at Sangrampur village near...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 25 (1997): The disputed region of Kashmir continues to be a thorn in relations between India and Pakistan despite positive gestures made by both sides ahead of a resumption of high-level talks later this week. Leaders in India's state of Jammu and Kashmir, over which the neighbours have fought two wars since independence from Britain in 1947, said on Tuesday that Kashmir could overshadow other progress in the talks, which resume on Friday after a three-year...

JAMMU, March 25 (1997): At least 65 people were injured Tuesday in a protest rally here against the massacre last week of seven Hindus in the northern Indian state of Kashmir, witnesses and police said. Police fired in the air and beat protesters with canes and batons when thousands of Hindus tried to march on the provincial legislature in Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir, the witnesses said. The injured included 25 policemen, hurt after clashes erupted between the protesters...

NEW DELHI, March 24 (1997): Prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda on Monday used strong words to condemn the killings of seven Hindus in the troubled region of Kashmir, vowing the attackers would not "escape the consequences". "I wish to emphasise that the perpetrators of this act of terror shall not escape the consequences of their horrible crime," Deve Gowda said in a statement issued just before he left for a three-day visit to Russia. "Their masters abroad, who aid and abet cross-border terrorism, should...

SRINAGAR, March 23 (1997): Eight Moslem separatists and seven others died in stepped-up violence in Kashmir, as protests erupted Sunday against the massacre of Hindus by anti-Indian guerrillas, officials said. Four rebels and an Indian soldier died late Saturday in a gunbattle at Awhan village in northern Kashmir. Officials said the fierce fighting lasted for 20 hours after troops cordoned off the sector. Heavily-armed militants, hiding inside houses, opened...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 22 (1997): Unidentified gunmen shot dead seven local Hindus in a major act of violence in the troubled Himalayan region of Kashmir, police said on Saturday. A police spokesman said the shooting took place late on Friday at Sangrampur, a village in Budgam district 20 km (12.5 miles) southwest of Srinagar, summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state. "They have been living here all these years. All were male," the spokesman told Reuters. "We are still...