SRINAGAR, May 31 (2000): Eight Kashmiri Muslim guerrillas and three paramilitary troopers were among 14 people killed in separatist violence across Indian Kashmir, police said Wednesday. Four separatist militants and two troopers were killed Wednesday in a fierce gunbattle with Indian security forces in Safapora, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the state summer capital Srinagar, police said. The firefight broke out during a search operation. A security force personnel and a civilian were injured during the exchange...

SRINAGAR, May 28 (2000): Two people were killed and at least four wounded on Sunday when a powerful bomb exploded near a tourist reception centre in the restive northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, witnesses said. The attack came less than a week after Indian officials said that tourism in the province was picking up with a rise in the number of visitors. Witnesses said two civilians died when the explosion took place near the centre in the heart of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. More...

SRINAGAR, May 27 (2000): Fourteen militants and an Indian security personnel were among 17 people killed as security forces destroyed several militant hideouts in Jammu and Kashmir since Friday evening, an official spokesman said Saturday. A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had a narrow escape in a militant attack on his house, while militants also targeted a security vehicle and a post with grenades in the state during the period, he said. Army troops gunned down five foreign mercenaries associated with...

NEW DELHI, May 26 (2000): Defence Minister George Fernandes said on Friday India made a mistake in not adequately guarding its borders on the Himalayan Kargil heights, which led to an incursion from Pakistan last summer. "...we should bear in mind the mistake between 1972 and 1990 when we did not take enough measures to protect ourselves (in Kargil) as we have in the west, Siachin (Glacier), southwest...," Fernandes said in an interview with the Doordarshan news television. Siachen is the high altitude glacier over...

SRINAGAR, May 25 (2000):Police fired tear gas on Thursday to disperse thousands of people who tried to exhume six bodies in the restive state of Jammu and Kashmir, officials and witnesses said. "Nearly 2,000 to 4,000 residents of Sopore took to the streets on Thursday morning and tried to dig out the bodies of six people who were recently killed by security forces at Tangdar," an official said. Residents said they were innocent victims of a "fake gunbattle". Security officials say the six were separatist guerrillas...

RAJOURI, May 24 (2000): A junior engineer of Pakistani Air Force was among 12 militants killed in a series of encounters with Indian security forces in Saaj and Thanamandi areas of Rajouri in Jammu region, a defence ministry spokesman has said here. A Pakistani Air Force Juniour Engineer was among the seven mercenaries gunned down in a gun battle at Maharajapur area in Thanamandi tehsil of Rajouri district on Monday night, the spokesman said Tuesday. He has been identified as Abdul Hameed working as ground engineer in...

SRINAGAR, May 24 (2000):Police said Wednesday they had arrested two separatist Muslim militants in India-administrated Kashmir for masterminding the recent killing of the state power minister. A police spokesman toldthat Nissar Ahmed and Abdul Salam were arrested in a swift operation launched by the police chief of the militant-infested Anantnag district in Kashmir. "Nissar was monitoring the movement of the Power Minister Ghulam Hassan Bhatt from his residence located in front of the minister's house," the spokesman...

SRINAGAR, May 22 (2000): At least 17 people, including nine separatists, have been killed in separate incidents in India's Jammu and Kashmir state since Sunday, police said. Officials said one person was killed and two injured on Monday when separatists fired at least six rifle grenades at a high-security building in Srinagar, the state's summer capital. Elsewhere in the province, 16 people died in different battles between separatists and security personnel. A Pakistan-based militant group, the Jaish-e-Mohammad,...

SRINAGAR, India, May 22 (2000): Muslim separatist rebels Monday fired six grenades at the government headquarters of the troubled Indian state of Kashmir. The grenades fell short of the building and injured a policeman, police and witnesses said. The rebels fired the grenades with the help of an attachment fixed on an AK-47 assault rifle, police said. The attack sparked panic in the highly fortified seven-storey building. Police and paramilitary troops deployed around the complex fired in the air to scare away the...

MUZAFFARABAD, May 21 (2000): Indian troops shelled border villages in the Pakistan-controlled part of the disputed Kashmir region, killing four people and wounding two others, local police said on Sunday. They said shelling across the U.N.-monitored Line of Control (LOC) in the Athmaqam area of Neelum Valley killed two men, a woman, and wounded a 12-year-old boy. Local officials said Indian troops fired more than 50 mortar shells in the area, 40 km (25 miles) northeast of the state capital Muzaffarabad on Saturday...