SRINAGAR, 23 April 2003 — Twenty-six people were killed, six of them in a powerful bomb blast at a rural dairy yard, as a fresh surge of violence rocked Indian Kashmir yesterday, just days after India’s prime minister signaled a new peace initiative in the restive state.
Twenty-three others were injured in the latest violence that comes a day after Indian pointman on Kashmir, N.N. Vohra, reached the summer capital of Srinagar to hold talks with elected representatives and other sectors of Kashmiri society.
The violence has continued despite Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s offer of a “new beginning” to archrival Pakistan and of peace talks with separatists during a weekend tour of the divided state.
The bomb blast occurred in a cattle-milking yard in Gulshanpora Batagund village, near the town of Tral, 40 kilometers south of Srinagar.
“The explosive device was planted on the edge of the ground where the people and cattle were present,” a police spokesman said, adding that cattle had also been killed.
Twelve people were injured in the blast, eight of whom were in critical condition and moved to the main hospital in Srinagar, where 12-year-old Idrees Ahmed died of his wounds, taking the toll of those killed to six.
“The improvised explosive device was fitted in a mud wall near the ground and went off when a group of people and cattle were on the move in the area,” said eyewitness Mehrajuddin Bhat.
Bhat brought two of the eight seriously injured people to Srinagar’s hospital for treatment.
“Three people died on the spot, while two died on the way to a Tral hospital,” he said.
The Tral area has been a hotbed of the anti-Indian rebellion that erupted in the scenic Himalayan region in 1989 and has left at least 38,000 people dead.
In the south of the restive state, meanwhile, 17 suspected militants were killed by Indian security forces in two separate clashes in the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, a defence spokesman said.
“Thirteen militants were killed in a hide-out at the Hill Kaka area of Surankote in Poonch. The encounter is still going on and the area has been cordoned off,” the spokesman said. The site is 210 kilometers northwest of Jammu, Indian Kashmir’s winter capital.
Four other militants were killed in another hide-out 130 kilometers northwest of Jammu in Kalakote. The gunfight was still continuing into the afternoon, the spokesman said, adding that an Indian soldier also died in the fighting.
Another rebel was killed by troops in the south Kashmir district of Anantnag.
Meanwhile, nine personnel of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) were injured when their vehicle hit a land mine near Qazigund township, 75 kilometers south of Srinagar, a BSF spokesman said.
In another incident, a federal policeman was killed and a local police officer injured when rebels attacked their camp with assault rifles and grenades in Zainapora village in Pulwama yesterday, police said.
The latest violence quickly dampened a mood of optimism that had begun to stir in the insurgency-wracked region following Vajpayee’s weekend comments.
The Indian premier offered a hand of friendship to Pakistan during a massive rally in Srinagar and urged peace talks on the future of Kashmir.
The offer of peace talks has been “wholeheartedly” welcomed by Pakistan, which said it is ready for a meeting “any time, any place and at any level”.
Meanwhile, Vohra on the second-day of his week-long tour of the region yesterday held talks with Communist party leader, Abdul Rehman Tukroo.
During their 30-minute meeting, Trakroo apprised Vohra about his party’s stand on Kashmir and the present situation in the state. Vohra met a National Conference delegation led by its President Omar Abdullah in the evening.
Sources indicate NC members raised the issue of granting autonomy to Jammu & Kashmir. NC members are hopeful that greater autonomy would help in silencing the separatist Kashmiri leaders who are insistent on complete autonomy. Regarding Kashmir as an integral part of India, the present federal government has no intention of granting it complete autonomy or even a return to the state’s pre-1953 status.
Vohra would also meet a Congress delegation led by state PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saifuddin Soz and a delegation of ruling PDP led by Muzzafar Beig, former chief secretary Mir Nasarullah and others. Vohra would also hold talks with a People’s Democratic Forum delegation led by CPM General Secretary Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami and with a state government representative, State Housing Development and Tourism Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir.
Expressing PDF’s view, after a high level meeting of his party in Jammu, Minister for Forests and Environment Gulam Mohideen Sofi said, “Offer of talks with cross-sections of the society of the state could have been made more meaningful if the PM had announced a unilateral cease-fire in his public address at Srinagar.”
