SRINAGAR, April 28 (2000): A top militant commander was among seven people killed in separatist linked violence in Kashmir, a police spokesman said Friday. Abdul Majid Rather, a divisional commander with the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, was one of two militants shot dead overninght Thursday in a clash with security forces in the northern Kashmiri district of Kupwara. Four more militants were killed in separate incidents in the troubled Himalayan region, while separatists shot dead one member of a...

CHATISINGHPORA, April 28 (2000): Life is cautiously returning to normal in the picturesque Kashmir village of Chatisinghpora, where 36 Sikh men were massacred by unidentified gunmen last month. The massacre marked the first time Sikhs had been targeted in the decade-old Muslim insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and sent shock waves through their close knit community that were felt across the country. The killings, which the Indian government blamed on Pakistan- based Islamic militant groups, tested the...

SRINAGAR, April 27 (2000): At least 4,000 school children joined a huge march in India's strife-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday to protest the killing of a student earlier this week, police said. Unidentified militants shot dead four members of a family, including 18-year-old student Mohamad Sarwar Dar, on Tuesday night. A police statement said 4,000 students from Government Higher School Magam marched through Goigam village to protest against the killing of their school mate and his family. (For...

MUZAFFARABAD, April 26 (2000): The leader of a guerrilla alliance fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region says the militants have adopted a strategy of targetting and attacking India security  installations. Sayed Salahuddin said in an interview with Television on Tuesday that after U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to South Asia last month, Indian forces had increased human rights violations in Kashmir to demoralise the population. "But I want to make it clear that the suppressed people of Kashmir have...

SRINAGAR, April 26 (2000): Sixteen people, including eight Indian security personnel, were killed in shootouts and an explosion in the insurgency-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Wednesday. They said at least five Border Security Force personnel were killed and two others wounded when an improvised explosive device went off near the border outpost of Gharana in Ranbir Singh Pora sector on Tuesday evening. Ranbir Singh Pora lies 29 km (18 miles) west of Jammu, the winter capital of the restive Himalayan...

NEW DELHI, April 26 (2000): Five members of India's paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) have been killed in a blast triggered by suspected Muslim spearatists in Kashmir, a BSF spokesman said Wednesday. The explosion occurred late Tuesday night in the district of Ranbirsingh Pura, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Kashmiri winter capital Jammu. "Six BSF soldiers were on patrol in a jeep when an improvised explosive device was triggered under their vehicle, killing two of them on the spot," said spokesman...

SRINAGAR, April 24 (2000): A 10-year-old boy and a woman were killed when a bomb went off in the troubled Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Monday. "An explosive device went off (on Sunday evening) at Harni village resulting in the death of a 10-year-old boy, Asif Mohamad. Two women also sustained injuries, of whom one later died," a police spokesman said. Harni village lies in Poonch district near the Pakistan border, 480 km (300 miles) southwest of Srinagar, the state's summer capital. (For...

SRINAGAR,April 23 (2000):Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged artillery fire across their disputed border in Kashmir on Sunday but no-one was killed, Indian police said. Authorities in the Indian zone of Kashmir accused Pakistan of launching the indiscriminate attack and said "they have been firing on our Uri and Karnah borders in north Kashmir but there has been no loss of life." Three shops were gutted in Karnah, 150 kilometres (94 miles) north of Srinagar, when a Pakistani shell landed in a populated village,...

SRINAGAR, April 22 (2000): Seven separatist guerrillas and two Indian soldiers were killed in shootouts in India's Jammu and Kashmir state, police said on Saturday. "An encounter took place between militants and security forces (on Friday evening) at Mahore in which four unidentified militants were killed," a police spokesman said. Mahore area lies in Udhampur district 232 km (144 miles) southeast of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. On Friday evening, a separatist militant and two Indian security...