At least 12 people including two suspected local rebel commanders were killed in separatist violence in Indian-administered Kashmir. - Separatists and troops exchanged fire in the village of Narwani, 55 kilometres south of Srinagar, leaving two rebels and a security force soldier dead, said Border Security Force (BSF) spokesman Tirtha Acharya. The spokesman said one of the rebels had been identified as Abu Umair, a divisional commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. âHe was involved in the massacre of 24 Hindus in Nadimarg village of south Kashmir in March this year and was also close to one of the slain militants involved in last yearâs attack on Akshradham temple in Gujarat,â Mr Acharya said.
- In another incident, the BSF shot dead two militants in Tral, 40 kilometres south of Srinagar. One had been wanted by authorities and belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen.
- Overnight, police said Manzoor Ahmed, a 20-year-old Muslim who ran an electrical repair shop in the village of Muran south of Srinagar, was shot dead by rebels.
- Suspected rebels abducted another civilian Nazir Rather in the southern village of Pariwan and slit his throat, police said. No rebel group has claimed responsibility for the two deaths.
- A police spokesman in Jammu reported the killing of a Hizbul Mujahideen leader. Hizbul district commander Abdul Latif Bhind was killed in a gunbattle in the southern district of Doda late Sunday in which two more militants were injured, the official said.
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