SRINAGAR, 6 September 2003 — Six people including a pro-India politician were killed in restive Kashmir, where a forest gunbattle between militants and Indian troops entered a fourth day yesterday, police said. Stepped-up violence by rebels has claimed 67 lives since Sunday, a day after Indian troops shot dead their senior commander Gazi Baba in Srinagar, the summer capital.
Seven militants continued to hold 1,500 Indian troops at bay for a fourth day as the army said it was not in a hurry to end its siege of the thick jungles of southern Kashmir. Officials supervising the gunbattle in dense forests and ravines near the village of Ghatti, in the Kathua border region about 85 kilometers (53 miles) south of Kashmir’s winter capital Jammu, rejected the criticism.
“Our strategy is to wear them out. We have no time-frame,” said Kashmir Police Inspector-General P.L. Gupta on the fighting, which so far has led to the death of one policeman and injuries to seven others.
“Also, the encounter got prolonged as we did not want our boys to get killed by taking any hasty step in flushing out the rebels,” Gupta said. The military, apparently stung by the growing criticism, insisted it was not in a hurry to end the siege.
“The operation in Kathua has been deliberate. Time is not a premium,” the army said in a statement in the Kashmir summer capital of Jammu. “It (the delay) is also to ensure that the task is achieved with the least casualties to the armed forces and required action is being taken to trap and eliminate all the terrorists,” it added.
Meanwhile, police said suspected militants yesterday afternoon shot dead politician Mohammed Ismail in the village of Aripora, near Kulgam town, 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Srinagar.
In the neighboring village of Kellar, Indian troops shot dead a militant yesterday afternoon, around the same time as Ismail’s killing took place.
Three militants and an Indian Army soldier died in four separate encounters in Kupwara, Budgam and Poonch districts of the region yesterday, police said.
