SRINAGAR, India, 16 January 2005 — Rebels stormed a complex in the heart of Srinagar yesterday and engaged in a fierce gunbattle with paramilitary troops living inside the grounds.
There was no immediate word on any casualties in the sports stadium complex which had been requisitioned as a temporary barracks by the Central Reserve Police Force, a police spokesman said.
At least two heavily armed militants hurling grenades forced their way into the complex and a firefight was under way between the rebels and the paramilitary soldiers. “The battle is still going on,” the police spokesman said.
Aside from the soldiers’ barracks, the stadium complex houses a passport and other federal government offices in Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state where a deadly revolt against New Delhi’s rule has raged since 1989.
The pro-Pakistan Al-Mansoorin guerrilla group telephoned a local news agency to claim responsibility for the attack.
Militants opposing New Delhi’s rule in the Indian part of Kashmir routinely step up attacks in the run-up to Republic Day on Jan. 26 which is observed as a “black day” by separatists and rebels opposed to Indian rule in the region.
Earlier yesterday, a civilian died and at least 11 people, including a police officer, were injured when militants tossed a grenade at a rally for municipal elections to be held in Srinagar next month after a gap of 20 years.
Rebels and separatists oppose any elections in Indian Kashmir, saying elections are no substitute for what they say is the right of Kashmiris to self-determination.
Violence has continued unabated in Kashmir despite moves by nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to ease tensions over the scenic Himalayan territory which has been the trigger of two of their three wars.
The attacks came on a day when the top Indian Army commander in the region said the rebels might begin using alternative routes to infiltrate into Kashmir after a military crackdown succeeded in blocking incursions from the insurgents’ bases in Pakistan.
Lt. Gen. Hari Prasad said infiltration across the Line of Control, the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, was “near to impossible due to an electrified border fence and tighter vigilance.”
However, he said the militants might try to make incursions from inside India, especially from the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, which border Pakistan.
“They may also try and come in from Nepal,” Prasad, the head of the Indian Army’s northern command, told reporters in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Militants in the Muslim-majority state have been fighting for more than a decade to break the region away from India, either to form an independent state or join Pakistan. Nearly 66,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the conflict.
The insurgents have traditionally crossed the Line of Control from Pakistan to stage attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, but that route has been mostly shut off due to a clampdown on militant groups by India and Pakistan following a cease-fire between the two countries. Recent snowfalls have also made the Himalayan mountains impassable.
“We have decimated the militant network in the hinterland and the infiltration from across the Line of Control is near zero at the moment,” Prasad said.
Prasad said between 1,600 and 2,100 rebels were operating in the state and added their numbers were expected to fall in the coming months because it had become harder for them to infiltrate into the state.
The government, meanwhile, said Indian security forces killed at least 1,000 militants in 2004.
Separately, Indian border guards yesterday arrested 39 Myanmar nationals near a border outpost in Samba, about 100 km southwest of Jammu, senior Border Security Force officer R.S. Pawar said. He said the group, which included six women and two children, were trying to cross the border to work as laborers in Pakistan.
— Additional input from agencies
