SRINAGAR, India, 12 May 2008 — Eight people were killed yesterday in daylong firefights between Indian security forces and militants in Kashmir. The dead included four civilians.
“Both the holed up militants belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit have been killed. The operation is over,” Farooq Ahmad Khan, deputy inspector general of police, said by telephone from Samba town, 350 km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.
Khan said the two militants, wearing army uniform, had forced their way into a house in Samba town spraying bullets at the inmates. “Hoshiyar Singh, general secretary of the Indian National Democratic Party, his wife, another woman, a local photojournalist and a trooper were killed in the initial attack.” the officer said.
He said six others, including an army major and a trooper, who were injured in the militant firing were taken to hospital for treatment. The militants later entered another house in the Rakambatali locality of Samba, taking two women and three children hostage.
Army, paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) and police reinforcements were sent to the area and the two holed up militants were engaged in a sustained gunfight.
Late in the afternoon, the security forces rescued the hostages and stormed the house. They killed both the holed up militants. “We have recovered huge quantity of arms and ammunition from the slain militants,” Indian Army spokesman Lt. Col. S.D. Goswami told this correspondent. He said a critically injured trooper later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
The photojournalist, Ashok Sodhi of Daily Excelsior newspaper, was cremated in the evening in Jammu.
