India Troops Kill Seven in Kashmir

04/12/2003| IslamWeb

Twelve more people - including seven fighters - were killed in occupied Kashmir, as a truce by the armies of India and Pakistan on the borders of the disputed region was in its eighth day yesterday, police said. Two fighters and an Indian army soldier were killed in a fierce encounter in the southern village of Kharpora overnight, police said. The fighting erupted during a search by the army. Indian troops shot dead three more fighters in the Beholi village of Doda on Tuesday during a three-hour gun battle, the spokesman said. "All the five 'militants' killed in two encounters belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen," the spokesman said. Hizbul Mujahideen is the region's dominant resistance group. Two more fighters were shot dead in the village of Khaipora overnight in northern Kupwara district, police said. A Muslim woman caught in the cross-fire also died. Suspected fighters shot dead a former colleague in the southern Pulwama District, while a member of Ikhwan group was killed in the central Kashmir district of Budgam, the spokesman said. The fresh deaths take the toll to 54 people killed since India and Pakistan began a truce on their disputed borders of Kashmir on November 25. Police said 14 of the deaths since the truce began were policemen and soldiers who died in ambushes. In one attack on Tuesday, 19 policemen, including the deputy police chief of southern Anantnag district, were injured. Meanwhile, the main resistance alliance in Indian Kashmir yesterday admitted four more parties to its fold and urged other Kashmiri activists working outside the forum to join it. "We have agreed to admit four parties who had desired to join us," Umar Farooq, an executive member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), said. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A Kashmiri Muslim carries firepots or kangris at a market in Srinagar December 3, 2003. (REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli)