RAWALPINDI, July 29 (2005):President Pervez Musharraf tried on Friday to ease Indian concerns over reports that militant camps were re-opening on Pakistan's side of the ceasefire line dividing the disputed territory of Kashmir. "Now about the training camps ... Let me assure you that the situation is on the mend," Musharraf told the foreign media at his residence as army chief in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. "It will only improve in every sphere of activity." Pakistani current affairs magazine "The Herald", in a...

SRINAGAR, July 25 (2005):Police detained at least 20 protesters on Monday during a second day of angry demonstrations across Kashmir against the killing of three innocent teenagers after troops mistook them for militants. Saturday night's shooting, in which a 15-year-old boy was also wounded, has fuelled anger among Kashmiri Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, largely Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state. Hundreds of students, as well as activists from a separatist alliance opposed to Indian rule, took to the streets in...

SRINAGAR, July 24 (2005): Thousands of people protested against the Indian army in troubled Kashmir on Sunday, a day after security forces shot dead three teenaged boys mistaking them for militants, police and witnesses said. They said at least 5,000 people gathered near Kupwara town to grieve over the bodies of the dead boys and express their anger against the Indian army. "We want freedom ... Down with the security forces," the protesters shouted as they carried the bodies of the victims on their shoulders to a...

SRINAGAR, July 21 (2005): Two bus passengers were killed and three were wounded on Thursday when they were caught in an exchange of fire between militants and soldiers in Indian Kashmir, police said. The firefight, which lasted over 30 minutes, erupted after suspected Muslim guerrillas launched grenades at a security camp on the outskirts of Sopore town, north of Srinagar, the Himalayan state's summer capital. The militants escaped. "Everybody was running for cover, traffic came to a standstill. Panic spread in the...

SRINAGAR, July 16 (2005):Forces said they killed 15 Muslim militants who were trying to cross into its part of Kashmir from Pakistan on Saturday, the latest of a series of clashes on the disputed frontier in less than a week. India says growing incursions by militants from across the border to join the revolt against its rule in Kashmir could undermine a 20-month-old peace process with Pakistan. Islamabad denies any involvement in the armed rebellion. Soldiers shot dead nine militants who were trying to breach the...

SRINAGAR, July 14 (2005):Soldiers killed five rebels on Thursday in a gunbattle which erupted two days earlier near the military Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the army said. Officials say the firefight could be the biggest clash since India and Pakistan began a peace process 20 months ago. The fierce standoff began on Tuesday evening after a large group of guerrillas from Pakistan sneaked into the snow-covered and forested Gurez sector in Indian Kashmir. "The terrain in Gurez is...

SRINAGAR, July 13 (2005): A fierce gunbattle was raging between soldiers and a large group of heavily-armed Muslim rebels near the military Line of Control (LOC) that divides turbulent Kashmir, an army spokesman said on Wednesday. It could be the biggest clash between troops and rebels since India and Pakistan began a peace process 20 months ago, officials said. The firefight began on Tuesday evening when troops spotted the rebels crossing the LoC into the hilly, snow-covered and forested Gurez sector in the north of...

SRINAGAR, July 6 (2005): A state minister in Indian Kashmir survived an assassination attempt by suspected rebels who opened fire on his car on Wednesday and wounded three of his bodyguards. Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sayed Bashir escaped unhurt when his car was hit by automatic rifle fire in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, witnesses and police said. Security officials fired back at the gunmen, who fled. "The minister escaped and we are cordoning the area to search for the militants," a senior...