SRINAGAR, India -Four Islamic terrorists rebels and three Indian security men were killed in revolt-hit Kashmir, the army said on Wednesday, hours ahead of talks between key separatists and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh. Three of the terrorists militants died in a fierce gunbattle on the outskirts of Indian KashmirÂ’s summer capital Srinagar, army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vijay Batra told AFP.
Two Indian soldiers and a policeman were also killed in the gunbattle that lasted for several hours after troops launched a raid on a terrorist rebel hideout. “The fourth terrorist militant was shot dead during another gunbattle in (northern) Bandipora town,” Batra said, adding the army was checking the identity of the dead terrorists rebels.
The shootings coincided with the planned start of a second round of discussions between moderate separatists led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and the prime minister in New Delhi later Wednesday. The first high-level discussions between Singh and the separatists took place in September last year in the quest for a solution to the dispute over Kashmir. India and Pakistan, who are engaged in a slow-moving peace process aimed at settling their feud over the northern territory, hold it in part but claim it in full.
The Kashmir talks come just two days after suspected Islamic terrorists rebels carried out the regionÂ’s worst massacre in six years, killing 34 Hindu villagers in what Indian officials said was an attempt to derail the talks. Officials said 30 men in one of the villages where the terrorists killers struck had been given rifles to help protect themselves in the event of a further attack.
The terrorism insurgency against Indian rule has left more than 44,000 people dead since 1989. Separatists say the death toll is at least twice as many. |