SRINAGAR, June 30 (2000): Shahtoosh traders in Indian Kashmir voiced shock and anger Friday at a decision to ban all trade in the celebrated wool made from the hair of the endangered Tibetan antelope, or chiru. While the trade in shahtoosh shawls and other products has been prohibited in the rest of India and around the world for years, Kashmir -- the home of shahtoosh production -- has held out, saying a ban would affect too many livelihoods. But, finally, domestic and international pressure took its toll and on...

JAMMU, June 26 (2000): Two Indian soldiers were killed and four wounded by Pakistani mortar shelling in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir, a police official said on Monday. The official said Pakistani troops opened fire across the Line of Control, or ceasefire fire, at an Indian border outpost near Sunderbani area in Rajouri district, 175 km (110 miles) north of Jammu, the state's winter capital. He added that Indian troops retaliated but it was not known if there had been any casualties on the other...

MUZAFFARABAD, June 26 (2000): Muslim militant groups Monday rejected a controversial proposal for autonomy in the Indian controlled part of Kashmir. "We strongly reject the internal autonomy of the Indian-held Kashmir," said Amiruddin Mughal, a spokesman for Harkatul Mujahideen. "We will continue Jihad (holy war) till complete liberation of Kashmir from the Indian yoke," the hardline militant group said. The statement came after the legislative assembly in Kashmir adopted a resolution calling for full autonomy for...

SRINAGAR, June 26 (2000): The Kashmir assembly on Monday passed a controversial proposal advocating autonomy for the separatist-hit Indian state, setting the stage for a confrontation with the central government. The proposal, supported by the ruling National Conference party which enjoys a two-thirds majority in the assembly, was passed by voice vote. It calls for full autonomy for the Muslim-majority state, except in matters related to finance, defence and communications. In New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari...

SRINAGAR, June 25 (2000): Ten people, including two Indian soldiers and four separatist guerrillas, have been killed in shootouts and explosions in India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, police said on Sunday. They said 12 people, including seven Indian soldiers, were wounded in attacks by militants. "In a mine blast at Sanglore, two security forces personnel lost their lives on Saturday evening," a police statement said. Sanglore lies in Udhampur district 232 km (144 miles) southeast of Srinagar, the summer...

MUZAFFARABAD, June 25 (2000): Indian forces shelled border villages in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir killing three people, officials said Sunday. Two men and a girl died in the "unprovoked" shelling late on Saturday night, they said. One of the men was ploughing his field in the southern district of Kotli when he was struck and killed instantly. The girl died in Batal village in Poonch district and the other victim in the nearby village of Dharamsal. One shell landed in a house during a wedding ceremony late...

JAMMU, June 24 (2000): The head of India's army said Saturday that India is fencing off a stretch of its border with Pakistan and asked residents of the strife-torn Kashmir region to help reduce crossings by "foreign mercenaries". "Cent (100) percent sealing of the border is impossible...we have to take effective measures to curb it (infiltration by fighters), which we are doing," Gen. V.P. Malik told reporters in Jammu, the winter capital of the disputed Himalayan region, at the end of a two-day visit to the...

MUZAFFARABAD, June 24 (2000): Indian artillery and mortar fire on Saturday killed two civilians and wounded seven others on the Pakistani side of the disputed Kashmir region, Pakistan police said. They said Indian troops fired some 500 artillery and mortar shells killing a man and a woman and wounding three other residents in the Leepa valley on the Pakistan side of Kashmir's military line of control. Three other men and a woman were injured in a separate incident on Saturday when the Indians fired some 150 shells on...

SRINAGAR, June 24 (2000): Elements of the army regard Muslims in Kashmir state as Pakistanis, provincial chief Farooq Abdullah told the state assemly on Saturday. "In the last 10 to 12 years, a very mistaken impression has grown that Muslims ... especially he, the Kashmiri, is a Pakistani," Abdullah told the assembly while discussing a plan for more autonomy in the troubled state. "This bias is very strong among newly recruited army officers." A special session to debate a controversial proposal to grant greater...