WASHINGTON, April 30 (2003): India faces a "terrorist threat" launched into Kashmir from Pakistan, a new US report said Wednesday without directly blaming Islamabad, which it termed a "key" anti- terror ally. The Patterns of Global Terrorism Report for 2002 lauded Pakistan's cooperation in the US anti-terror campaign and sympathised with India's battle with Islamic militants. But it was noticeably less critical of Pakistan than several senior US officials had been in recent interventions as hopes for dialogue between...

NEW DELHI, April 30 (2003): India on Wednesday blamed a frontline pan-Islamic guerrilla group for the grotesque massacre last month of 24 Hindus including women and children in disputed Kashmir. Junior Home Minister Harin Pathak also told parliament that intense pressure was being put on cross border militants from Pakistan entering Indian Kashmir. Pathak bluntly blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) rebel force, which previously was headquartered in Pakistan, for the March 23 attack in the central Kashmiri village of Nadi...

SRINAGAR,April 30 (2003): Suspected militants using automatic weapons and grenades attacked the residence of Indian Kashmir's finance minister Tuesday, a police spokesman said Wednesday. He said the attackers hurled hand grenades before opening up with automatic rifle fire on the ancestral home of finance minister Muzaffar Beigh in the village of Chandusa near Baramulla town, 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the summer capital Srinagar. Police guards posted at Beigh's residence returned fire and the gunbattle...

SRINAGAR,April 29 (2003): Eight soldiers and 13 Muslim rebels were killed in a gunbattle in Indian Kashmir on Tuesday as violence intensified after the prime ministers of India and Pakistan discussed ways to improve relations. A total of 25 people died across Jammu and Kashmir state on Tuesday in one of the bloodiest days in recent weeks. A police spokesman said the gunbattle took place in remote Doda district in southern Kashmir. He said the militants were hiding in two houses which they then set on fire....

SRINAGAR, April 28 (2003): Analysts and officials on Monday linked a sudden rise of separatist-linked violence in Indian Kashmir to the prime minister's peace overtures to Pakistan and the melting of snow in the Himalayas. The upcoming annual shift of the state capital from Jammu in the south to the northern summer capital of Srinagar was also a factor, a police officer said. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extended an offer of friendship to arch-rival Pakistan, which India accuses of supporting Kashmiri rebels,...

JAMMU, April 27 (2003): About 40 Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Indian Kashmir who mutinied and walked out with arms and ammunition because they were not being paid, agreed Sunday to resume duties. SPOs are recruited from civilians to fight the Muslim insurgency in Kashmir, which has cost more than 38,000 lives since 1989. The trouble began four days ago when the officers posted in the militant-infested Doda district complained they had not been paid salaries for months. (For complete story write to...

SRINAGAR, April 26 (2003): Fresh violence by suspected Muslim rebels, including a suicide attack on a state-owned radio station in Indian Kashmir has left 14 people dead and ten security force personnel injured Saturday. The fresh deaths mark the second day of bloody violence that left 18 people dead on Friday, including six in a suicide attack on a paramilitary sector headquarters and a bomb explosion in a courthouse that killed three and injured 40 others. Two Indian security men and three Muslim rebels were killed...

SRINAGAR, April 25 (2003): Violence exploded afresh in Indian Kashmir Friday when at least 18 people were killed and nearly 50 injured in the bombing of a courthouse, a suicide attack on a security force post, a military ambush and murderous attacks on politicians, police said. Three people -- two of them women -- were killed and 40 injured in a bomb explosion in the early afternoon on the lawns of a courthouse in the town of Patan, 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of the summer capital Srinagar, a police spokesman...

SRINAGAR, April 24 (2003): A policeman was killed and two others were injured, one seriously, when a demining operation in Indian-administered Kashmir went badly wrong Thursday, police said. Eight others, including two Hindus were also killed in separate incidents, police said. The demining accident followed an earlier incident in which a member of India's Border Security Force (BSF) was injured when he stepped on a landmine in Pinglish village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the summer capital Srinagar, a...

JAMMU, April 24 (2003): The chief minister of Indian Kashmir accused Islamabad on Thursday of betraying a pledge to stop Muslim militants crossing into the region to join a revolt against Indian rule. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Syed also said that hundreds of militants had massed on the Pakistani side of the ceasefire line dividing Kashmir, ready to cross into Indian Kashmir as the snows blocking mountain passes melted. (For complete story write to admin@freepresskashmir.com)