NEW DELHI, Aug 30 (1997): Nearly 50 people have died and more than 100 villages have been inundated by flash floods in the Indian state of Kashmir, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said Saturday. Sixteen of the deaths occurred in the Kashmir Valley and the rest elsewhere across the Himalayan region, state Works Minister Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah was quoted as saying. Kashmir's rivers, swollen by monsoon rains, submerged 112 villages as well as parts of Srinagar, the state's summer capital, PTI said. A highway connecting...

SRINAGAR, Aug 29 (1997): Six men died in the troubled state of Kashmir in a spate of revenge killings between separatist militants and their former guerrilla colleagues, police said Friday. Four 'renegade' militants -- who once fought against Indian rule in the Himalayan state but have since sided with the Indian army -- were killed by separatists in the south of the territory on Thursday, a police spokesman said. Pro-India militants then killed two separatists belonging to the Jamat-i-Islami fundamentalist...

JAMMU, Aug 28 (1997): Moslem separatist guerrillas kidnapped eight policemen after a forest ambush in the strife-torn Indian state of Kashmir, police said Thursday. The eight were among an 11-man patrol searching for the rebels following a tip-off late Wednesday in the hilly region of Baruda, around 180 kilometers (112 miles) northwest of here and close to the Pakistan border. "They were ambushed," Inspector General of Police Kuldip Khoda said here. "Three of them managed to escape but the others were taken away by...

SRINAGAR, Aug 26 (1997): A bomb exploded under a bus in Kashmir on Tuesday, wounding at least 25 passengers, Indian police said. A police spokesman in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, Srinagar, said the device went off as the bus was passing through Palapora village, about 15 km (10 miles) southwest of Srinagar. He said no deaths were reported. "According to initial reports, at least 25 people were injured in the blast, two of them seriously, including the driver of the bus," the spokesman said. No...

URI, Aug 25 (1997):- An Indian army brigadier in Kashmir claimed here on Monday that around 70 Pakistani soldiers died in weekend artillery border clashes with Indian troops. Brigadier Jasbir Leddar said at the Line Of Control (LOC) dividing Indian and Pakistani zones in the disputed Himalayan state that the deaths had occured in the Uri area. "We destroyed 30 to 35 bunkers and they contain around five to seven soldiers each," said Leddar during a media tour of the area. "We are observing everything. We estimate...

SRINAGAR, Aug 25 (1997): Twelve people were killed on Monday in separatist violence across the troubled Indian state of Kashmir while a political leader escaped an assassination bid, police said. Police said Moslem separatist rebels ambushed a military convoy in the northern district of Kupwara early Monday, killing a major and a soldier. Two rebels, identified as Afghans, died in the ensuing gun battle. In a separate incident, Taj Mohiuddin, a leader of the main opposition party in the state, survived an attempt...

JAMMU, Aug 24 (1997): Fifty-one Pakistani soldiers were killed in one of the heaviest artillery battles in recent years with Indian forces on the disputed Kashmir border, Indian officials claimed Sunday. They said 45 Pakistani troops were also injured in the cross-border shelling reported in eight parts of the frontier and added that 36 Pakistani military posts were razed or damaged. Three Indian soldiers died and six were wounded, the Indian spokesman said. Pakistan vehemently denied the Indian claims. "No...

JAMMU, Aug 24 (1997): At least three Indian and 10 Pakistani soldiers were killed in heavy fighting across their disputed Kashmir border, Indian defence sources said Sunday. Around 20 others were wounded on both sides as the two armies traded heavy machine gun and artillery fire from Saturday evening in Uri and Kargil sectors, the sources said. "The firing is still continuing," a military official said in this winter capital of Kashmir state. An official said the Indian soldiers were killed in Uri, about 400...

MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 23 (1997):Indian troops shelled villages across its frontier with Pakistan in disputed Kashmir region on Saturday, killing three Pakistani civilians and wounding others, residents and officials said. Two men and a woman were killed by Indian artillery fire at Nagni village near the Chokothi border post, southeast of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Azad (free) Kashmir, local residents said. Government officials said three people had been wounded. Army sources said three civilians were...

SRINAGAR, Aug 23 (1997): At least one Indian soldier was killed and seven others were injured by a landmine in the restive state of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, an Indian defence ministry spokesman said. "There was a mine blast at Badgam. So far one dead and seven are injured," spokesman P. Purushottam told Reuters in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state. The soldiers were in a vehicle which ran over a mine thought to have been planted by militants, he said. More than a dozen groups are fighting for Kashmiri...