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Islamic Activists Killed in Indian-Occupied Kashmir
SRINAGAR, Indian-Occupied Kashmir, Sept 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Indian occupation forces shot dead 12 Islamic activists Wednesday in Indian-held Kashmir, while three civilians died elsewhere, officials said.
Six Muslims were killed at Magam village, near the health resort of Kokernag, 43 miles south of Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar.
Police said counter-insurgency personnel from the Indian army, police and paramilitary Border Security Force had cordoned off Magam following a tip-off about the presence of a group of heavily armed Muslim activists.
Troops closed in on the suspected hideout early Wednesday and told the activists to surrender.
"The militants instead started firing on the troops," a police spokesman said.
"Troops returned the fire and in the ensuing gunbattle, six militants were killed," he said, adding the dead were suspected to be members of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Islamic group.
"Militant" is the word Indian troops and press use to refer to members of Islamic groups fighting against Indian occupation of Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Two more Muslim resistance activists, identified as Pakistani nationals, were killed in the northern Kupwara district, police said.
In a second incident in the district, two activists were reported killed at Hakapathar, 65 miles north of Srinagar, after they entered from across the Line of Control, the de facto border that separates India and Pakistan.
Two more were shot dead in a clash with army forces in the southern Poonch district, police said.
In a separate incident, a civilian was shot dead in Sopore late Tuesday, the spokesman said. Police blamed the killing on Muslim activists, but no group has claimed responsibility.
Another civilian died during an exchange of fire between activists and security forces at Panzgam village in the southern Kashmir district of Pulwama, police said.
Meanwhile, a child who was injured Tuesday in a landmine explosion in Kashmir's northern Baramulla town, 34 miles from Srinagar, died in hospital overnight, bringing the number of those killed in the explosion to three.
The children accidentally set off the landmine while playing by a river.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in Indian-occupied Kashmir since the resumption of the conflict against Indian occupation in 1989.
India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring "cross-border terrorism", but Islamabad, which puts the death toll as high as 70,000, says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris right to self-determination.
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