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Indian Troops Kill Six In Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India, April 7 (News Agencies) - Indian troops gunned down six cross-border fighters in Kashmir who they said Saturday were responsible for a string of massacres of Hindus and truckers in the disputed Himalayan territory.
A police spokesman said the six were killed in the region of Banihal, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the summer capital Srinagar, just after they crossed into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan late on Friday night.
"The group of these foreign mercenaries were involved in the killing of Hindus and truck drivers last year in Doda district," the police said in a statement, adding that two security personnel were injured in the gunbattle.
An Indian border guard was, meanwhile, killed and three other troopers injured late on Friday when their vehicle ran over a landmine planted by Kashmiri fighters in Sopore, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Srinagar, the spokesman said.
In a separate incident, two pro-Pakistan Kashmiri group members were killed and five soldiers injured in a fierce gunbattle at Watlab, 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of Srinagar, he said.
Army soldiers threw a security ring around a hideout after receiving a tip-off. The fighters opened fire on the advancing soldiers, injuring five of them, the spokesman said.
Two fighters, who belonged to the dominant Hizbul Mujahideen group, were killed, as others retreated into a nearby forest.
Meanwhile, 20 civilians were injured Friday night when pro-government militants hurled a hand grenade on a rival group, which missed the target and fell on a shopping mall in Bandipora, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Srinagar.
Elsewhere, three people, including a fighter, were killed in scattered overnight violence across the Kashmir valley, police said.
The renewed violence comes two days after India sought to add new impetus to its four-month-old unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir with an invitation to opponents and separatists for a political dialogue on restoring peace in the region.
The government also welcomed the All Party Hurriyat Conference - an amalgam of two-dozen political parties in Kashmir - to the talks.
Kashmiri groups have already rejected the ceasefire in place since November, and reactions to the latest announcement were wholly negative.
More than 34,000 people have died in violence in Indian Kashmir since the conflict began in the frontier region in 1989.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of fomenting trouble and pushing trained fighters into the Indian zone of Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge but gives its moral support Kashmiris in the disputed territory.
The two South Asian archrivals have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since gaining independence in 1947.
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