Twenty-three killed in Kashmir fighting

October 30, 2000
Web posted at: 1:33 AM HKT (1733 GMT)

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) -- Twenty guerrillas and a civilian were killed in gun battles in Indian-ruled Kashmir while two women died in Pakistani shelling in the disputed region, Indian authorities said on Sunday.

The dead guerrillas included six shot dead by Indian soldiers in a shootout in Safapura, north of Srinagar.

Ten separatists including two intruders from the Pakistani side of the area were reported killed in the southern Jammu region. They included seven Muslim guerrillas killed in a joint operation conducted by the army and police in the Banihal area of the Doda district, a defense spokesman said in Jammu.

The violence followed an Indian statement on Saturday that its troops had killed 12 Pakistani soldiers as they tried to cross the military line dividing the Himalayan region. Pakistan said it was unaware of any such incident.

Police said one of the women had been killed by Pakistani fire close to the southern end of the Line of Control (LoC) at Palanwala near Jammu on Sunday, and the other in the Uri sector, west of Srinagar, late on Saturday.

Indian and Pakistani troops routinely exchange small arms, mortar and artillery fire across the 750-km (450-mile) LoC, where artillery duels have increased in recent months.

The Indian army said it had recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition from a militant hideout in northern Kashmir on Saturday. The haul was found at Chanderhoma village outside Pattan township, 27 km (16 miles) north of Srinagar.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Kashmiri separatists, a charge Islamabad denies.

India controls 45 percent of the Kashmir region, Pakistan about a third and China the rest.

Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. Police and hospitals say more than 30,000 people have been killed in nearly 11 years of separatist violence.

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