SRINAGAR, Feb 8 (2004) – Indian police have arrested the top leadership of a hardline pro-Pakistan separatist rebel group, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The commander of the outfit, which is fighting for Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, and five senior associates were arrested over the past 24 hours in police raids throughout the Kashmir valley, police said.
“The Jammu and Kashmir police have been able to neutralise the (group’s) top leadership,” police inspector general K. Rajendra told a news conference in Srinagar.
The announcement came as police said three Indian soldiers and seven suspected rebels had died in fresh violence in the state since Friday night.
An overnight gunbattle in Gunchoo village south of the summer capital, Srinagar, left three soldiers and a militant dead while four militants died in a shootout in Poonch district. Two militants died in clashes elsewhere, police said.
