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Nine Indian Policemen Killed, 10 Injured in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India, Sept 17 (News Agencies) - At least nine Indian policemen were killed and 10 injured Monday in the first major operation by freedom fighters in Kashmir since the attacks in the United States one week ago.
A senior police official said a two-member squad attacked the counter-insurgency police unit camp at Handwara township, around 50 miles north of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, with AK rifles and grenades.
Indian police killed one of the activists, while another managed to escape.
The Kashmir separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility.
Resistance groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 - often called "militants" by Indian and Western media - have generally maintained a low profile in the past week, in the wake of U.S. moves to forge a global alliance against terrorism following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The two-man unit first shot dead a guard positioned at the gate of the camp, and forced their entry inside.
They fired indiscriminately and hurled grenades, killing eight policemen, including three officers, and injuring 11 others.
The policemen were taken by surprise, but engaged the men in a two-hour gunbattle.
Lashkar-e-Taiba spokesman Abu Osama said such attacks would continue.
The assault was launched after midnight Monday, creating panic in Handwara township, which lies in the northern Kupwara district, bordering Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Senior police officers rushed to Handwara to take stock of the situation and coordinate a search. The Indian army and paramilitary forces reached the area and sealed it off pending a search.
Lashkar "suicide" squads have become a regular feature of the insurgency in Indian Kashmir over the past year.
Small squads usually launch nighttime attacks on security camps, barricading themselves inside one room in the compound and fighting on until Indian occupation forces eventually kill them.
Lashkar members last month attacked the main police station in the southern district of Poonch, killing seven policemen.
Meanwhile, five Muslim resistance activists were shot dead by Border Security Force (BSF) guards overnight near the southern township of Tral, 40 kilometers south of Srinagar, police said.
The five were killed during a cordon and search operation launched by the BSF on a tip off.
"The militants opened fire on our patrols who retaliated, killing five of them," a BSF spokesman said.
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