SRINAGAR, April 30 (2002): Eight people were killed in separatist-linked violence in Indian Kashmir, where Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire Tuesday over their disputed border. Muslim rebels shot dead two members of a Hindu village self- defence force in the southern district of Rajouri, a police spokesman said. The two men had been abducted over the weekend and police found the bullet-ridden bodies Tuesday morning. Many Hindu villages in Muslim-majority Kashmir have set up self- defence units -- often...

SRINAGAR, April 29 (2002): Fourteen people, including a woman, an army officer and nine Muslim militants, were killed in different incidents of separatist violence in India's restive state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Monday. The strife-torn region has been at the heart of a tense military standoff between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan since a December attack on India's parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based guerrilla groups. Suspected separatist guerrillas on Monday attacked an army convoy...

JAMMU, April 28 (2002):Combat troops deployed in tens of thousands on Kashmir's frontiers shot dead 15 Muslim separatist guerrillas, 13 of them as they crossed the border with Pakistan, officials said Sunday. Two civilians and a trooper also died separately in overnight clashes in the troubled Himalayan state, the police added. Indian army spokesman Major Animesh Trivedi said 13 cross-border guerrillas belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Harkat-ur- Mujahedin separatist groups were killed in three separate firefights...

SRINAGAR, April 28 (2002): Nine people were killed in separatist-linked violence in Kashmir and a soldier died in an exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops in the disputed region, officials said Sunday The Indian army, backed by counter-insurgency troops, shot dead six separatist militants in two encounters overnight near the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that divides Kashmir between nuclear-armed enemies India and Pakistan, police said. "The militants had entered into Poonch area from...

SRINAGAR, April 27 (2002): Muslim rebels fighting Indian rule in Kashmir have accepted a hardline separatist politician as the "leader of the freedom struggle," the region's most wanted militant said Saturday. "Militants have accepted (Syed Ali) Geelani as the leader of the freedom struggle," Syed Salahudin, the supreme commander of dominant indigenous group Hizbul Mujahedin, told a local news agency. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)

SRINAGAR, April 26 (2002): Indian troops shot dead nine Muslim rebels Friday in a fierce gun-battle in Indian-administered Kashmir, an army spokesman said. The encounter took place in the village of Manabal, near Langate township, 120 kilometres (74 miles) north of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital. "The fighting erupted in the village after the army launched a cordon and search operation on a specific information late Thursday," an army spokesman said, adding it was some of the fiercest fighting between the security...

SRINAGAR, April 24 (2002): A hardline leader of Indian- administered Kashmir's main separatist alliance Wednesday accused two senior leaders of keeping the coalition in the dark over a meeting in Dubai with leaders from the Pakistani zone. Syed Ali Geelani told AFP the seven-member executive council of the All Party Hurriyat Conference would decide whether to take "disciplinary action" against the two alliance leaders, Omar Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)

SRINAGAR, April 23 (2002): Suspected Muslim militants hanged a 40-year-old woman in Indian Kashmir, where six more people died in insurgency-linked violence overnight and Tuesday, police said. Rafiqa Biwi, who has five children, was abducted by armed gunmen overnight and hanged at the village of Hadora, on the outskirts of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. Police blamed Muslim militants for the killing. However, none of the dozen militant groups active in Kashmir claimed responsibility. There was also no clear motive...

SRINAGAR, April 23 (2002): A hardline leader of Kashmir's main separatist alliance said Tuesday the coalition would boycott upcoming elections in the state and vowed no let-up in the struggle against Indian rule. "Hurriyat will not participate in the coming state assembly polls," Syed Ali Geelani told AFP in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. The All Party Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of some two dozen separatist political and religious groups, has stayed away from earlier elections in the insurgency-wracked...

SRINAGAR, April 23 (2002): The authorities in Indian Kashmir Tuesday banned the sale or production of army clothing apparently in a bid to prevent Muslim militants misusing fake military uniforms. "No shopkeeper, tailor or any other agency could sell or use material for making army combat uniforms in any form whatsoever," an order by a district magistrate said. "This order will remain in force for two months with immediate effect," it added. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)