Author:
Publication: AFP
Date: October 28, 2001
Shrinagar, India, Oct 28 (AFP) -
Eleven separatist Muslim militants and two Indian security officials were
killed in overnight unrest in disputed Indian-administered Kashmir, police
said Sunday.
An Indian Border Security Force
(BSF) assistant commandant and counter insurgency police assistant sub-
inspector were killed in a fierce overnight encounter with militants at
Chak Natnusa, near Kupwara, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Shrinagar,
Kashmir's summer capital.
Two militants were also killed during
the clash, which erupted after BSF troops and counter-insurgency police
raided a militant hide-out at the village.
"The encounter lasted for several
hours," a police spokesman said.
Two more militants were killed in
the neighbouring Rangwar forests, also near Kupwara, late Saturday, police
said.
Security forces shot dead four militants
overnight at village Malwan, near Kulgam, 70 kilometers south of here,
during a cordon and search operation.
At Kapran village in the southern
Kashmir district of Anantnag, security forces shot dead a "commander" of
the dominant militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen, police said.
In another incident, militants fired
five grenades at an army camp Sunday morning in Awantipora, 30 kilometers
south of here, police said.
"All the grenades exploded short
of target," a police spokesman said, adding that the area from where the
grenades were thrown was later sealed and a search launched.
Militants also lobbed a hand grenade
at a police station in Shrinagar, but it failed to cause any damage, police
said.
Two more militants were killed in
Poonch district overnight.
More than 35,000 people have been
killed since the start of a separatist insurgency in Kashmir in 1989.
