Kashmir Violence Flares as Cross-border Firing Eases

16/06/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS Sunday's Death Toll Highest Since May 14, 2002||No Casualties in Routine Cross-border Shelling|| STORY: Violence in the disputed Kashmir region, the crux of the row between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, hit its highest level in more than a month on Sunday with 21 people killed.

Sunday's deaths mark the highest daily toll since May 14, when militants attacked a bus and an Indian army camp killing 30 people, many of them women and children.

That led to a sharp rise in tensions between India and Pakistan, triggering a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to pull back the two sides from the brink of war.

Indian officials said that 21 people, including five Hindu villagers, were killed in several separatist incidents in Indian Kashmir.

Firing eased along the India-Pakistan border but a senior Indian government minister reiterated that there would be no talks until Pakistan dismantled what he called training camps for Kashmiri militants on its territory.

NO CASUALTIES IN ROUTINE CROSS-BORDER SHELLING

While violence in Kashmir flared, there appeared to be some easing in the daily exchange of artillery, mortar and small arms fire along the border where nearly a million troops from both sides have been massed for months.

Indian officials said there was a heavy exchange of fire at one place along the Line of Control which divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani sectors. Firing elsewhere was routine and there were no casualties, the officials said.

In Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, officials said the situation was calm in most of the border areas.

"Except for some sporadic incidents of machinegun fire in Hajira town of Rawalakot district, no exchange of fire was reported from any of the remaining districts that border with Indian-controlled Kashmir," a government official said.

Scores of civilians have been killed in the past month in exchanges of fire.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Kashmiri Muslim man walks through the debris of a residential house after a gun battle at the village of Gowherpora, 14 miles west of Srinagar, June 16, 2002. Police said that the house was damaged during a gun battle between Indian security forces and separatist militants resulting in death of four members of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistan militant organization, and a civilian. (Fayaz Kabli/Reuters