SRINAGAR, Jan 31 (1995): Police in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday arrested 20 Moslem militants in a raid in Srinagar, officials said.
Police said the special operations group arrested the militants at their hideout at Batmaloo while they were holding a meeting in the state’s summer capital.
India’s paramilitary Border Security Forces helped the local police in the operation that lasted six hours. Police said the militants did not put up a fight as they were unarmed.
The local police had so far disassociated themselves from anti-militancy operations in the disputed state.
The Kashmir inspector-general of police Rajinder Tikku described Tuesday’s arrests as the biggest breakthrough to date in the operations.
Moslem Pakistan rules one third of the Himalayan region and has fought two of its three wars with India since independence over control of the area.
The secessionist rebellion in Kashmir, now in its fifth year, has claimed more than 17,000 lives, according to police and hospital officials.
India accuses Pakistan of training, arming and guiding the militants, charges which Islamabad denies. It says Pakistan gives only moral and diplomatic support to the militants.
