SRINAGAR, 27 August 2005 — Eight people were killed yesterday as a senior Kashmiri separatist said he planned to call a conference of leaders from both sides of the divided state.
An army official said Indian troops shot dead four members of Kashmir’s most powerful rebel group, Hizbul Mujahedeen, while suspected rebels killed a public servant and his son. “The militants were killed in two separate clashes late Thursday in the districts of Anantnag and Pulwama,” army spokesman Vijay Batra told AFP.
Both districts lie south of Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar and are considered strongholds of Hizbul, which wants all of Kashmir to be joined with neighboring Pakistan.
Also Thursday, suspected militants shot dead a government official and his son in the southern district of Rajouri, police said.
Police blamed militants for two more shootings in which a village head and a Kashmiri working in the Indian Army were killed in the districts of Baramulla in the north and Budgam in the southwest, respectively. None of the dozen rebel groups active in Kashmir has claimed responsibility for the four killings.
Meanwhile, senior separatist Yasin Malik said yesterday the Kashmir dispute was heading toward a solution and he planned to call a Srinagar conference of leaders from both the Indian and Pakistani zones.
“This conference will give chance to Kashmiris to speak their minds,” Malik told a rally in northern Kashmir town of Bandipora, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Srinagar.
India in the past has not allowed such conferences and observers said it was unlikely Malik would be permitted to stage a meeting. He urged India and Pakistan to allow such a gathering as it would push forward the peace process.
“There is tremendous pressure on India and Pakistan from the international community to resolve the dispute,” Malik said. “I can tell you with authority that the Kashmir issue is heading toward a resolution.”
