SRINAGAR, 22 June — Violence flared in Kashmir with 17 people, including 15 activists, killed in separate gunbattles yesterday as pressure grew on New Delhi to hold talks with separatists in the disputed state.
Activists, meanwhile, killed an official from Kashmir’s ruling party, police said. Ghulam Rasool, who served as a block president for the ruling party, was shot dead inside his house, becoming the second National Conference official to be gunned down this week.
Despite a statement on Thursday in Srinagar, by Defense Minister George Fernandes that Paskistani-based activists infiltrating into Kashmir had "almost ended", police reported no less than four fire fights with rebels yesterday.
They said members of the National Rifles, the army’s counter-insurgency wing, gunned down three activists at Kaimoh village, near Bandipora township, 60 km north of Srinagar. The firefight, police added, erupted when soldiers were trying to defuse a land mine planted by activists.
"As the troops started defusing it, the activists opened fire, resulting in a retaliation by the troops," a police spokesman said. "Three activists were killed while others fled the area." The army, backed by counter-insurgency police, shot dead two more activists in a separate encounter overnight in an adjoining village.
Later Thursday security forces shot dead three more activists in the nearby village of Hardu, police said.
In yet another incident, police said troops killed two activists in the village of Tris in the northern district of Kupwara, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The pair belonged to Kashmir’s dominant militant group, Hizbul Mujahedeen, and the Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Muhammad, police said. The National Conference official was killed by activists in Wadipora, a village near Srinagar.
Former Home Minister Mufti Sayeed, meanwhile, yesterday joined the growing chrous urging Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to invite Kashmiri leaders for talks on the Kashmir crisis.
"I urge Prime Minister Vajpayee to invite the leaders of Hurriyat Conference for talks," said Sayeed, referring to Kashmir’s main separatist alliance the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
"Even if the infiltration (of activists) stops, the resentment within (Kashmir) will continue," he told a news conference in Srinagar.
"To address that Vajpayee should invite the Hurriyat for talks."
Fernandes on Thursday also said Delhi would ponder a proposal by Hurriyat to visit Pakistan to broker a cease-fire with Kashmiri leaders based in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Separatist leaders said yesterday they are optimistic Delhi will allow them to visit Pakistan to broker the cease-fire with Kashmiri activist leaders there.
Their optimism, they said, stems from remarks by Fernandes that Delhi will consider the request to allow them to travel to Pakistani Kashmir.
"After Fernandes’s statement we will wait and see how events shape up," said Abdul Gani Bhat, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference.
"I am a die-hard optimist," said Bhat.
Yesterday Sayeed threw his weight behind Hurriyat on the issue.
"Truce is mandatory for talks," he said, "and hence Hurriyat leaders should be allowed to visit Pakistan to make that clear to the activists." AFP
Separatist leaders in Kashmir said yesterday they are optimistic Delhi will allow them to visit Pakistan to broker the cease-fire with Kashmiri activist leaders there.
Their optimism, they said, stems from remarks by Fernandes that Delhi will consider the request to allow them to travel to Pakistani Kashmir.
