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| Sunday, 10 February 2002 |
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Indian security forces lay siege to Kashmir mosque SRINAGAR, India, Feb 8 (Reuters) Security forces in Indian Kashmir traded fresh fire late on Friday with militants holed up in a mosque, a paramilitary official said. Security forces laid siege to the mosque earlier in the day after at least three militants fled into the building in the Tutigund area of the disputed Himalayan region as authorities conducted search operation. It was the second time in the past week rebels had sought refuge in a mosque in Kashmir which is at the heart of a military standoff between India and Pakistan. Authorities sent some village elders in to try to persuade the militants to surrender but the guerrillas refused, the paramilitary official said. "We will try again," Naresh Mehra, a senior BSF (Border Security Force) official told Reuters. Police said militants and security forces earlier exchanged fire but there was no damage to the mosque. On Monday, two members of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant group surrendered peacefully to Indian authorities after being holed up in a mosque for 30 hours in north Kashmir. "Details are awaited," Mehra said. Last year the Indian army appealed to the public in the Himalayan region not to let guerrillas take shelter in mosques. Elsewhere in the state, a soldier died after being injured in cross-border fire a day earlier, officials said. Indian and Pakistani troops have been exchanging almost daily border fire since the crisis between the two nuclear-armed foes erupted last December after an attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistani-based militants. Nearly a million troops are massed on the two sides of the border. New Delhi has refused to pull its soldiers back until Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf lives up to a pledge to end what India calls "cross-border terrorism". An Indian defence spokesman told Reuters there was no sign so far of an end to militant infiltration from Pakistan or Pakistan-controlled territory. "There has been no-let up in infiltration from across the border since Pakistani authorities announced a crackdown on extremists," he said. Indian officials say Pakistani troops fire across the border to give cover to Islamic militants sneaking into Indian-administered Kashmir, an allegation denied by Islamabad. "They (the militants) have installed advanced communication network and have also set up a powerful radio station," the defence spokesman said. India is battling a revolt in its part of disputed Kashmir and says Pakistan arms Muslim militants to fight its rule, a charge Islamabad denies. India controls 45 percent of Kashmir, Pakistan rules over a third of the territory and China the rest. Officials say more than 33,000 people have been killed in the scenic region since a rebellion broke out at the end of 1989. Separatists put the toll closer to 80,000. |
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