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| India-Pakistan |
| Police kill 'Varanasi militant' |
| 2006-05-09 |
| Police in Indian-administered Kashmir say they have killed a militant who they allege was involved in bomb attacks in the holy city of Varanasi. They have identified the dead militant as Mohammad Zuber and say he was killed in the frontier town of Handwara, near the ceasefire line with Pakistan. Mohammad Zuber was shot dead in a gun battle with police near the Line of Control which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, they say. Police say they are trying to investigate what he was doing in the area. "Perhaps he was trying to flee to Pakistan," Inspector General of Police K Rajendra Kumar is quoted as saying by the Associated Press. In April police in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Varanasi is located, arrested a man they alleged was the mastermind of the blasts. The man, Vali Ullah, ran a religious school and was associated with a famous seminary in the state, the police said. The police had earlier freed two men they arrested in connection with the blasts. A wedding party took the brunt of the attack at Varanasi's famous Sankat Mochan temple. Nine people died on the day of the temple attack and five at the city's Cantonment railway station. A child died two days later. Varanasi, also known as Benares, is about 670 km (415 miles) south-east of Delhi. It is the religious capital of Hinduism and is usually packed with Indian pilgrims and foreign tourists. |
| Posted by:Steve |