SRINAGAR, March 31 (2000): Ten people, including three soldiers and five separatist guerrillas, were killed in shootouts in Kashmir, police said on Friday. Two soldiers, two separatist guerrillas and a civilian were killed in fierce fighting around the village of Shaiepora, near the border with Pakistan, on Thursday night. Five more people died in separate shooting incidents in other parts of the troubled Himalayan region, police said. News of the latest violence came as shops, businesses and...

SRINAGAR, March 31 (2000): Several hundred Sikhs were Friday heading for a village in the troubled Indian state of Kashmir to mourn 36 compatriots massacred by gunmen 10 days ago, police and witnesses said. Security was on maximum alert as hundreds of buses, trucks and cars carried crowds of Sikhs to Chatisinghpora village -- the scene of the March 20 massacre. "Sikhs are even arriving from neighbouring Punjab state," a police spokesman said, adding that they were gathering to take part in the "ardas"...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 31 (2000): Ten people, including three Indian soldiers and five separatist guerrillas, were killed in shootouts in Kashmir, police said on Friday. Two Indian soldiers, two separatist guerrillas and a civilian were killed in fierce fighting around the village of Shaiepora, near the border with Pakistan, on Thursday night. Five more people died in separate shooting incidents in other parts of the troubled Himalayan region, police said. News of the latest...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 28 (2000): Violence left 15 people dead in India's revolt-racked Kashmire region that is at the heart of a military standoff between India and Pakistan, security officials said. Indian security forces killed a Muslim militant hiding in a mosque in west Kashmir ending a 20-hour siege, an army official said. It was the fourth time in two months that separatists had sought refuge in a mosque in the...

LONDON, March 28 (2000): Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, said on Tuesday he was prepared to persuade militant forces to reduce tension in Kashmir in order to pave the way for talks with India. But, in an interview with the Financial Times, Musharraf stressed that Pakistan would do this only if India took action to enforce respect for human rights in the disputed territory. The newspaper said this was the general's first offer to exercise...

Izhar Wani SRINAGAR, March 28 (2000): Kashmir loomed large over US President Bill Clinton's South Asia tour last week, but separatists here are angry that the president failed to launch any new initiative for the troubled region. "We are disappointed that Kashmir was not given enough priority by Clinton in his talks with the Indian government," said Shabir Shah, a prominent separatist political leader who has spent more than 20 years in...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 27 (2000): Two people were killed and nine wounded on Monday when unidentified militants threw a grenade in a crowded street in India's strife-torn northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. A police official said the militants hurled a grenade at a security forces vehicle at Nowpora-Bandipora, 57 km (35 miles) north of Srinagar, the state's summer capital. The grenade missed its target but...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 27 (2000): Indian soldiers were searching a Kashmir mosque and surrounding buildings for separatists on Monday after a two-day siege of the complex in which five people were killed. Three guerrillas holed up in the mosque at Chack-dadi were killed on Sunday evening. Two Indian soldiers were shot dead by militants from inside the building earlier in the day. "The operation at Chack-dadi is over," an army...

JAMMU, March 26 (2000): Home (Interior) Minister Lal Krishna Advani pledged on Sunday to provide adequate security to minorities in the troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, following a massacre of 35 Sikhs in the region last week. A security ring of state police and paramilitary forces supported by the army would be put around some villages inhabited by minorities. "We have already enough...forces available in the state and now they will be deployed according to the requirement", the minister told...

Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, March 26 (2000): Two Indian soldiers were killed in Kashmir on Sunday in a shootout with separatist guerrillas holed up in a mosque, an army spokesman said. The army attacked the mosque at Chack-dadi village in Kupwara district on Saturday after receiving information militants were inside, he said. Chack-dadi lies in the Handwara area of Kupwara district, some 87 km (54 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of the troubled Jammu and Kashmir...