SRINAGAR, June 30 (1997): Journalists in troubled Kashmir on Monday voted to continue a boycott of all government functions and statements unless three police officials accused of beating reporters are suspended. At least 20 Kashmiri journalists were injured on Friday when police fired tear gas and used batons against demonstrating reporters, witnesses said. The journalists were protesting against the alleged use of police force against reporters covering a women's demonstration earlier in the day in the summer...

JAMMU, June 29 (1997): An explosion killed at least three people in India's restive Jammu and Kashmir state on Sunday, police said. They said the blast hit a hostel for state legislators in the smart Civil Lines area of Srinagar, summer capital of the state. Police said five others were injured in the incident, one seriously. Further details were not immediately available. Over a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Moslem majority state. (For detailed story...

NEW DELHI, June 28 (1997): The Foreign Correspondents Association of South Asia (FCASA) Saturday condemned an attack on journalists in the troubled state of Kashmir by Indian security forces. FCASA president Bernard Imhasly said Friday's attack, which left some 20 Kashmiri journalists injured, looked like "a premeditated action on the part of the security forces." Imhasly said in letters to Indian and Kashmiri leaders that the journalists were singled out by the police while covering demonstrations by Kashmiri groups...

NEW DELHI, June 25 (1997): India on Wednesday restaked a claim over divided Kashmir and said it wanted talks with Islamabad to focus on Pakistan's military "occupation" of part of the region, the cause of two wars between the neighbours. Foreign Secretary Salman Haider said New Delhi expected talks over Kashmir to focus on Pakistan's support for militancy in the Indian-controlled section of the Himalayan region and not on the legitimacy of Indian rule. The diplomat, who led the Indian delegation at a round of talks in...

JAMMU, June 24 (1997): Hindus who have fled separatist violence in the Kashmir Valley were Tuesday urged by a community leader to take up arms to fight back against the Moslem guerrillas. Agni Shekhar told 5,000 Hindus here that Kashmir's predominantly Moslem government had failed to protect Hindus from Moslem militants. "Enough is enough," said Shekhar, who heads a local Hindu group. "You people should dispose of your electronic gadgets like televisions and buy assault rifles for self-defence and for countering...

SRINAGAR, June 23 (1997) The rebuilding of a 650-year-old shrine in Kashmir has renewed tension two years after it burnt down during a protracted gun battle between Indian troops and Moslem militants. Farooq Abdullah, the chief minister of Kashmir wants a modern structure built on the ruins of the Charar-i-Sharief shrine. He wants marble, cement and modern architects "from either Bombay or New Delhi". But a Moslem religious board which has been collecting funds to rebuild the wooden structure, destroyed in May 1995...

JAMMU, June 20 (1997): Five soldiers were killed by separatist militants in Kashmir, defence sources said Friday, in the third such incident this week. The ambush on Thursday evening brought Indian army losses to 14 in the past three days. Defence sources said a band of more than 20 rebels opened fire on the 10-man army patrol in the forest region of Doda, around 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Jammu, on Thursday evening. Three other soldiers were injured and airlifted to hospital. (For complete story...

ISLAMABAD, June 11 (1997): A Pakistan army major was killed in a clash with an Indian border force overnight in the disputed region of Kashmir, a Pakistan military statement said on Wednesday. The Indians also suffered casualties but their number was not known, said the statement. It was the most serious border clash for several months between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, currently preparing for a second round in recently-resumed peace talks. The statement said the clash followed "unprovoked firing" by the...

SRINAGAR, June 17 (1997): At least 14 people were killed Tuesday across the troubled Indian state of Kashmir in violence linked to a Moslem separatist drive, police said here. Two soldiers and five Moslem militants died during a shootout in a forest in the northern district of Kupwara, sparked by an army raid on a rebel hideout. Police said guerrillas fired on the soldiers with AK-47 assault rifles. The army then cordoned off the area and were conducting searches, they added. They said seven other people, including...

SRINAGAR, June 16 (1997): A soldier ran amok and shot dead five of his colleagues in the country's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, a defence spokesman said on Monday. "A Rashtriya Rifles soldier on Sunday ran amok in Shopian camp and fired indiscriminately at his colleagues and killed five soldiers including two officers and injured another officer," the spokesman said. Rashtriya Rifles is a wing of the Indian army engaged in fighting a seven-year-old separatist rebellion in the Himalayan state in which more than...