Thirteen people were killed in restive Kashmir in separatist-related violence, police said yesterday, adding they will send a cache of possibly poisonous bullets for chemical analysis.- Police on Friday seized a small pistol shaped like a pen and 25 small bullets near the northern town of Handwara. A policeman was left temporarily unconscious after breaking open one of the bullets which were marked Neuroxene - which scientists said was some kind of nerve gas. The cache was sealed and sent to a police laboratory for chemical analysis. "To be sure what the bullets are made up of we are likely to send them to some well-known forensic laboratory (outside the state)," a police officer said. Indian troops have never before found chemical or biological weapons from Kashmiri rebels fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir.
- Meanwhile, personnel of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) today shot dead a suspected militant in the Bemina locality of Srinagar, the Kashmiri summer capital during an encounter, a police spokesman said. A civilian also died during the exchange of gunfire, he said. Police had to use force to control more than 2,000 angry residents who demonstrated against the killing, witnesses said. The residents accused the troops of not letting them take the injured civilian to hospital after he suffered gunshot wounds, resulting in his death.
- In another incident Indian troops shot dead two Muslim militants in the southern town of Kulgam during a vehicle search late yesterday.
- Another rebel was shot dead in the northern district of Kupwara overnight by troops during an encounter, police said.
- Five more militants were killed in two separate encounters in the southern Poonch.
- One was killed in the southern Udhampur districts late yesterday.
- A Muslim civilian and a policeman were shot dead by suspected rebels in their homes in the southern Shopian and northern Handwara towns overnight, police said.
Violence by rebels has persisted in the restive region despite a ceasefire by the Indian and Pakistani armies along both the disputed and undisputed borders over Kashmir. The violence has left 110 people dead, including 70 rebels, since the truce began November 26. |