Yusuf Jameel
SRINAGAR, Feb 8, (1990) – Militants shot dead two security troops in Srinagar on Thursday and Indian opposition leader Rajiv Gandhi accused the government of whipping up war hysteria with Pakistan over a Moslem revolt in Kashmir.
Two paramilitary policemen were killed and a store clerk injured when militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir opened fire on a shop and then fled, an official spokesman said.
Authorities reimposed a daytime curfew on Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Moslem-majority state, after a powerful bomb exploded in a crowded market on Wednesday.
At least three people were killed when paramilitary police opened fire on people fleeing the blast and a resulting blaze, hospital sources and witnesses said.
Two shopkeepers were killed, several injured and dozens of shops and offices gutted in the explosion, which was heard in many parts of the city, police said. Police earlier said the blast was caused by an exploding gas cylinder.
Gandhi, ousted from power in November’s elections, said the country was faced with a “peculiar situation where war hysteria was being generated”.
“The sounds that this government is making, and the sounds coming from Pakistan, are very ominous,” he told a state election rally in the northeastern Manipur state capital of Imphal.
Indian-ruled Kashmir has been in turmoil for more than a year with the militant campaign for independence or merger with neighbouring Pakistan.
At least 85 people have died in the latest surge of violence over the past month as security forces cracked down on the militants, who have waged a campaign of near-daily bomb blasts, assassinations and sniper attacks.
Pakistan, which controls a third of Kashmir, blames the revolt on India’s refusal to hold a plebiscite on the state’s future and denies Indian charges it is arming the militants and fuelling the protest.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since 1947 and growing tension between the two countries has provoked fears of a fourth conflict.
The two wars over Kashmir began with border intrusions that quickly escalated.
On Monday, some 4,000 Pakistanis tried to cross the international border, prompting Indian troops to open fire, killing at least one and injuring 10 people.
The Editors Guild of India expressed deep concern on Thursday over the “virtual blackout” on media coverage of events in the Kashmir valley.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has suspended publication of local newspapers, foreign correspondents have been barred from the state, and Indian reporters have been restricted.
“This sort of censorship gives currency to unbridled rumours and affects the credibility of authentic information that journalists are able to gather,” the guild said.
