SRINAGAR, May 31 (1998): Seven people were killed and 16 injured in weekend attacks in restive Jammu and Kashmir state, police said on Sunday. "On Saturday night, unidentified armed men entered into a house at Pazalpora village and shot dead four people including three members of a family. Another was injured," a police official said. Pazalpora village lies in Baramulla district 54 km (34 miles) north of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Later on Saturday, unidentified militants shot dead two...

SRINAGAR, May 26 (1998): Pakistani cross-border shelling ignited a a devastating fire which engulfed large swathes of forest near Kashmir's winding frontier, Indian police said Tuesday. The blaze has destroyed a large number of pine trees near the village of Jhalsa, forcing hundreds of people to move to safer areas. The fire started on Sunday following firing and shelling by Pakistani troops, local officials said in Srinagar, the winter capital of Kashmir state. It soon spread to new areas. The flames were visible...

ISLAMABAD, May 25 (1998): The head of Pakistan's army on Monday warned that Indian forces might begin operating along a U.N. monitored line of control in the disputed Kashmir region and said this would trigger a Pakistani response. General Jehangir Karamat, the Chief of Army Staff, said that a new "proactive" policy announced by the Indian government last week could mean Indian military operations along the line. "In addition to its operations against the freedom struggle in Indian-held Kashmir, (the Indian army)...

SRINAGAR, India, May 23 (1998) - A Kashmiri youth leader had his left leg amputated, and was in critical condition, after suspected separatists detonated a landmine in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. "Seven people including MLC (Member Legislative Council) Gulam Nabi Shaheen, his two security guards and four civilians were injured when a landmine went off in Qamrwari area," a police official said. Qamerwari is a residential area in Srinagar, the main city of the strife-torn...

SRINAGAR, May 21 (1998): India accused Pakistan Thursday of launching unprovoked attacks on its forces in Kashmir for the first time since last week's nuclear tests, and told Islamabad to choose between "friendship or war." Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan said he was taking the threats "very seriously," but he warned that his country's nuclear programme was far superior to India's. Indian army spokesman Brigadier Arun Kumar Chopra said that Pakistani forces along the northwestern border in Kashmir had...

NEW DELHI, May 20 (1998): India served warning to arch-foe Pakistan on Wednesday that from now on it would deal firmly with militancy in the disputed region of Kashmir. Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said it was quite possible that Pakistan "would revert to extending terrorist activities" in the Kashmir valley and elsewhere following India's shock resumption of nuclear tests last week. "Up to now, India's policy to such provocation has been essentially reactive," he said. "At the (government) meeting two days back...

NEW DELHI, May 20 (1998):Interior minister said on Wednesday that the country's policy on militancy in the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir would from now on be dealt with in a proactive fashion. "Up to now, India's policy to such provocation has been essentially reactive," Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said in a statement. "At the meeting two days back it was decided that further misadventures on Indian territory shall be dealt with in a pro-active manner." Advani said he was not surprised by "angry outbursts...

SRINAGAR, May 21 (1998): India accused Pakistan on Thursday of stepping up attacks across their border to push armed militant groups into the strife-torn Kashmir valley. In a sternly worded statement, issued as tension between the arch-enemies mounted over India's nuclear tests, the government said Pakistan had violated a 1997 agreement not to fire heavy weapons across the so-called line of control. "It has resorted to unprovoked firing of artillery, mortars, air-defence guns and automatic weapons in Kanzalwan and...

ISLAMABAD, May 19 (1998):Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday expressed concern about Indian warnings over Kashmir that has heightened tension over India's nuclear tests. "We can not sit back on these threats," Sharif told reporters here, a day after India's Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said New Delhi would take a tough stance over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Advani said Pakistan should "roll back its anti-India policy, especially with regard to Kashmir." Pakistan will take a "very...

NEW DELHI, May 18 (1998): Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Monday warned Pakistan that last week's decision to test five nuclear bombs showed India would take a tough stance over Kashmir. "Islamabad should realise the change in the geo-strategic situation in the region and the world (and) roll back its anti-India policy, especially with regard to Kashmir," Advani told reporters. "India's bold and decisive step to become a nuclear weapons state has brought about a qualitatively new stage in Indo-Pakistan relations,...