Sunday, 17 March, 2002 India, Pakistan in Kashmir Shootout
VOA
News 17
Mar 2002

Indian and Pakistani
troops exchanged mortar and machine gun fire across the border in Kashmir
Sunday, ending a month of relative calm.
Indian military
officials say the Pakistani troops launched an unprovoked mortar attack on
soldiers in the Samba region, wounding one Indian fighter.
Indian troops
returned fire in an exchange that lasted for at least two hours. Pakistan has
not commented on the incident and there is no word if any of its troops were
wounded.
Both countries have
massed about one million troops on both sides of the border since India blamed
Pakistan for a December attack on the parliament in New Delhi that killed 14
people.
Earlier Sunday,
Indian officials said violence in Kashmir between Muslim guerrillas and police
has killed 13 people over the past three days.
A military spokesman
said four Muslim militants were killed Sunday during a gunbattle with security
forces in the Kupwara district near the Pakistan border. Four more militants
were reported killed in a separate shootout in the north.
The spokesman said
two more Muslim guerrillas, a member of the Indian Border Security Force and
two civilians died in clashes and explosions elsewhere in
Kashmir.
Some information
for this report provided by AP and AFP.
Email this article to a friend.
Printer Friendly Version
|