World | India
Troops kill last three rebels to end Kashmir hostage crisis
Government forces brought an end to a hostage crisis early on Thursday in the city of Jammu when they killed the last of three rebels believed to have seized eight people, army officials said.
- AP
- Published: 23:44 August 28, 2008
Srinagar: Government forces brought an end to a hostage crisis early on Thursday in the city of Jammu when they killed the last of three rebels believed to have seized eight people, army officials said.
The slaying ended a 20-hour gunbattle with rebels who were hiding inside a two-story concrete building in the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, said senior army official D.L. Chowdhary.
Two hostages died in the gunbattle, along with the three militants, Chowdhary said. The other six hostages, including four children, survived, Chowdhary said.
Three soldiers and three other civilians also died in the violence Wednesday.
42 die in 2 months
Unrest has roiled the Himalayan region for two months and has left at least 42 people dead, many of them killed by soldiers who have opened fire on protesters who were demanding an end to Indian rule in the region. The violence is the worst to hit Kashmir in more than a decade.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called for thorough and independent investigations into all killings that have occurred.
"OHCHR calls on the Indian authorities and in particular security forces to respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators," a statement issued Wednesday by the UN agency in Geneva said.
Yesterday, authorities lifted a four-day curfew for one and a half hours across the Kashmir Valley, allowing residents to buy food, medicine and other supplies after days of protests.
Dozens of Kashmiris used the break in curfew to hold small street protests at two places in Srinagar, burning tires and chanting, "We want freedom." Police chased away the protesters using wooden sticks, an officer at the police control room said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters. No injuries were reported.
Meanwhile, the chief spokesman of the Jammu-Kashmir Coordination Committee said the security forces have detained more than 100 Kashmiris, including key separatist leaders, since Sunday. "We don't know their whereabouts," said Masarat Aalam, chief spokesman of the committee. There was no immediate comment by Indian authorities.
Committee set up
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, representing various separatist and religious groups, set up the committee to coordinate protests in the region.
The crisis began in June when Muslims launched protests over a government plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir. The plan was quickly scrapped, angering the region's Hindu minority, but the protests have continue to snowball into a broader anti-India movement.
Indian officials have voiced fears that militants based in Pakistan - which controls about a third of divided Kashmir - could use the unrest to sneak across the heavily fortified frontier that bisects the region. Troops along the frontier, known as the Line of Control, have been on high alert, but they apparently missed the three rebels involved in the shootout with police and soldiers. Police say the three sneaked into Indian Kashmir early Tuesday morning after cutting through three metres of barbed wire about 30 kilometres west of Jammu.
Both India and Pakistan continue to claim Kashmir in its entirety, but there have been numerous separatist movements in India's part of the region..
The fighting has killed an estimated 68,000 people.
Until the latest unrest, violence had ebbed considerably in the past four years.
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