SRINAGAR, Feb 3 (2002): Thirteen rebels and two Indian soldiers were killed in gunbattles in Jammu and Kashmir where another person was injured as India and Pakistan exchanged fire across their border, police said on Sunday.
India and Pakistan have massed troops on their border since a December attack on India’s parliament which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based rebels fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Indian security forces shot dead three unidentified militants on Sunday in a gunbattle near Tral area of Pulwama district south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
In the neighbouring area of Kokernag an Indian soldier and two militants were killed in another gunbattle later on Sunday, police said.
“Further details are awaited,” a police spokesman said.
In another incident, Indian security forces surrounded a mosque in Kashmir state where at least two militants were believed to be hiding.
“During a cordon and search operation at Tarzoo area two militants barricaded themselves in a mosque. Security forces have laid siege to the entire area including the mosque,” a police official said.
“We are trying to motivate them (militants) to come out of the mosque. So far there has been no exchange of fire”.
Tarzoo is near Sopore town, north of Srinagar, Jammu and Kshmir’s summer capital.
It is the seventh time in the last year that militants have sought refuge in a mosque in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state. Most of them in the past have ended in a bloodshed.
Last year, the Indian army appealed to the people not to let guerrillas take shelter in mosques.
WIDESPREAD FIGHTING
Police said security forces shot dead two militants belonging to pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen on Sunday morning in Udhampur district, east of Jammu, the winter capital of the state.
He said elsewhere a soldier and six militants have been killed in separate gunbattles across restive Jammu and Kashmir state since Saturday evening.
Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting India’s rule in the country’s only Muslim majority state where authorities say about 30,000 people have died in 12 years of rebellion.
Separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.
Police said one villager was wounded on Saturday night as India and Pakistan exchanged regular mortar and machinegun fire in Nowhshahra, Rajouri and Poonch sectors.
Both sides also exchanged small arms fire in the Kathua, Hira Nagar, Samba and Akhnoor sectors, the official said.
Indian officials say Pakistani troops fire across the border to provide cover for Islamic militants sneaking into Indian-administered Kashmir – a charge Islamabad denies.
