| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fedayeen launch Kashmir strike
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- A bomb ripped through a courthouse Friday in the Kashmir town of Pattan, killing three people and injuring 34 others, police said. Pattan is about 35 kilometers (20 miles) north of Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian state in the disputed region of Kashmir. The attack comes just hours after two Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in a gun battle with fedayeen "suicide militants," who recklessly opened fire on the soldiers' camp in Jammu and Kashmir, according to local police. Two of the militants were killed when the Indian Border Security Force returned fire at the camp in Bandipore, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the state capital, Srinagar. Another militant escaped. Police said it was the first time in months the fedayeen militants have launched an attack in the troubled region. Indian police say the fedayeen are Pakistani-trained militants, responsible for suicide attacks in the past. In another incident in the nearby village of Shimlar, an Indian army patrol was fired upon by unidentified gunmen. According to police sources, two army men -- one of them a major -- were killed. Three other soldiers were wounded. Police said suspected militants also targeted activists of the ruling party in the Indian-administered state. Militants dragged a party official out of his home in the northern Baramulla district and slit his throat. A second civilian, who was also in the house at the time, was similarly killed. Another ruling party official was shot at in the town of Pampore. He died in the hospital of his injuries. The activists were part of the elected government that took office in Jammu and Kashmir late last year, promising to open talks with New Delhi to resolve the Kashmir issue. The stepped up violence came barely a week after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Indian-administered Kashmir, and announced he was willing to open talks with Pakistan on the dispute over the region. Vajpayee told the Indian parliament Wednesday his government was willing to hold negotiations, providing Pakistan stops what he called "cross-border infiltration" into the Indian part of Kashmir. Islamabad says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri militants. Senior U.S. diplomats are expected in the region early next month to help restart the dialogue between India and Pakistan. Senior Indian officials will also be visiting Washington at the same time. India controls two-thirds of the region, Pakistan the other third. Each country claims Kashmir as its own. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since 1989, when a separatist movement against Indian rule turned violent. -- From Correspondents Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar and Ram Ramgopal in New Delhi
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
