SRINAGAR, 3 September 2003 — Fifteen people, including a rebel on a suicide mission, were killed and 25 others injured yesterday in Indian Kashmir as militants vowing revenge for the slaying of a commander attacked Indian troops in waves, officials said.
The strikes coincided with claims by the authorities that Kashmir’s Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla force had linked up with rebels of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, which lost its chief commander, Gazi Baba, in a weekend firefight with Indian forces.
The bloodletting that has left 35 people dead since Sunday comes despite beefed-up security prompted by radio intercepts that militants were planning to launch retaliatory assaults.
A spokesman for the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) said one of two militants was shot dead after trying early yesterday to storm a fortified base in the Ishber locality of Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital.
“Alert guards shot dead one of the militants outside the main gate,” spokesman Tirtha Acharya said, adding the other is believed to have escaped.
Two BSF personnel were injured in the militant firing.
The slain militant is believed to be a Pakistani and a Jaish fighter, he said, a day after the BSF intercepted what it called cross-border radio communication, cajoling guerrillas in the group to take revenge for Baba’s death.
Baba was on India’s list of “most wanted” rebels after New Delhi accused him of masterminding an attack on its Parliament in December 2001 that killed 15 people, including the five attackers.
Despite heavy security, a civilian was killed and 21 others, including six soldiers, were injured in an explosion followed by gunfire from militants yesterday at an army convoy in south Kashmir, police said.
The ambush occurred at Chursoo, 35 km (22 miles) south of Srinagar, when an army convoy was on the move toward the winter capital of Jammu.
Chursoo Road is part of the main 300 km (186 mile) highway connecting the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley with the Hindu-majority Jammu region of the state and the rest of India.
Kashmir’s dominant rebel group Hizbul Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the attack — the third on the main highway since Monday.
In a separate incident, a mine was detected and defused on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Troops, meanwhile, patrolled areas of Srinagar, including streets around fortified state-owned radio and television buildings.
Militants early yesterday blew up part of a small bridge at Lowdora village in southern Anantnag district, 95 km (58 miles) south of Srinagar, a police spokesman said. The attack disrupted traffic on the main highway.
In violence on Monday night, a group of militants killed local politician Khadim Hussain and four others after storming his home in the Banihal area of Doda district, 120 km (75 miles) south of Srinagar.
In another incident, police shot dead five suspected militants in Surankote area of the Poonch border district, 210 km (130 miles) west of Jammu, a police spokesman said.
Three policemen were also injured in the gunbattle, which took place late Monday and ended yesterday. One of them died in hospital yesterday, police said.
“The fresh violence is the manifestation of anger by militants over Gazi Baba’s death,” a police officer told AFP at the end of a bloody day on Monday during which 16 people died.
Two militants were killed and three policemen injured in two separate clashes in Baramulla and Kathua districts yesterday, police said.
