SRINAGAR, April 30 (1999): Gunmen have massacred nine members of a Moslem family as six other people died in overnight clashes in the troubled Himalayan state, police said on Friday. Police in Srinagar said masked gunmen raided a home in the frontier district of Kupwara on Thursday night and shot dead nine members of a family including two women and a teenaged girl. Three other relatives  were seriously injured in the attack, officials said. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)

SRINAGAR, April 30 (1999): Militants killed eight members of a family, including two women and two children, in the troubled north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, a police official said on Friday. "According to early reports, the militants entered Abdul Ahad Ganie's house at Krishipora Nagri at night and fired indiscriminately," the official told Reuters. Three children from the family were seriously wounded, he said. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)

SRINAGAR, April 29 (1999): At least eleven people, including an Indian army officer and five separatist guerrillas, were killed in shoot-outs in troubled Kashmir, defence and police officials said on Thursday. "Today, Major Viney Chowdry and three militants including a foreigner were killed in an encounter at Takia Wagum village. The encounter was still going on till the last reports came in," an Indian defence spokesman said. Takia Wagam village lies in Pulwama district, 32 km (20 miles) south of...

SRINAGAR, April 28 (1999): Moslem separatist rebels in the troubled Indian state of Kashmir Wednesday threatened to kill or mutilate women wearing tight clothes. The Laksher-e-Toiba or Contingents of the Pious, a pan-Islamic militant group, gave Kashmiri women a week to comply with the diktat laid out in a news release. "We will fire on them or throw acid or grenades on those wearing skin tight outfits," an Urdu-language press release said. In 1990, a women's separatist group, calling itself Dukhtran-e- Milat or...

NEW DELHI, April 22 (1999): India said on Thursday that foreign mercenaries were now leading a widening rebellion against its rule in Jammu and Kashmir state in the Himalayas. "Foreign mercenaries from across the border now dominate the scene...," a government statement said, quoting the Home Ministry's 1998/99 annual report. It said this gave Pakistan a stranglehold over prominent secessionist militant groups and these were being used by Islamabad to extend "the arc of militancy to Jammu and beyond". India and...

SRINAGAR, April 22 (1999): Seventeen people, including 13 separatist guerrillas, were killed in India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, police said on Thursday. Five separatist guerrillas and an Indian army soldier were killed in a shootout on Wednesday evening in the Putushai forest in Kashmir's Kupwara district, 90 km (55 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of the Himalayan state. A police spokesman said security forces killed five militants in another encounter at Kathoori Kalaban in Udhampur...

SRINAGAR, April 20 (1999): Fifteen people were killed in separatist violence in India's troubled northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Tuesday. Seven people were killed and 26 seriously injured on Tuesday when a bomb exploded near a bridge on the outskirts of Rajouri, 175 km (110 miles) north of Jammu, the state's winter capital. The area was immediately cordoned off, and search operations were launched for suspected militants. Police said unidentified militants shot dead four members of a family on...

SRINAGAR, India, April 19 (1999):- A Kashmiri Moslem MP was expelled from his party Monday for ganging up with the opposition to vote out the Hindu nationalist-led coalition. Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, whose National Conference party is part of outgoing Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee's multi-party coalition, said Saifuddin Soz had been thrown out for dissent. Soz voted against the government in a nail-biting parliamentary vote of confidence on Saturday where the opposition won by a single vote. "Soz has...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, April 7 (1999): At least eleven people including six separatist guerrillas and four Indian paramilitary soldiers have been killed in gunbattles in India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, police said on Wednesday. "In an encounter with security forces at village Arpinchilla, two foreign militants and one security (member) were killed on Tuesday evening," a police spokesman said. Arpinchilla village lies in Doda district, 350 km (217 miles) southeast of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 5 (1999): The Indian army denied that its troops fired across the Kashmir ceasefire line at U.N. military observers on Friday. Pakistani state television reported that U.N. observers had a narrow escape when their vehicle came under fire in the Dudnial sector, on the Pakistan-controlled side of disputed Kashmir. "There has been no firing at all by Indian troops anywhere along the LoC (Line of Control)...