Violence rages Jammu and Kashmir: report
IRNA
New Delhi, Sept 22, IRNA -- A bid by four militants to intrude across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir was on Monday foiled by Indian Army, said an Indian military source. according to the source, all the four were shot dead in two incidents in Poonch and Gureze region. 21 people, including 16 ultras, were killed and 30 injured in militancy-related incidents in Jammu and Kashmir since Saturday evening. Indian Army spokesman said that while three persons were killed when they were attempting to cross over to India across the LoC in Poonch, one militant was killed in Noushera Nar in Gureze in Jammu region. In another incident on Sunday, acting on information about presence of militants in Gulgam jungles, Indian troops combed the area and were engaged in a fierce encounter lasting more than four hours. Four militants were killed in the Gunbattle, a defense spokesman said adding arms and ammunition were also recovered. Since the killing of Jaish chief commander operations in Kashmir, Gazi Baba, on August 30 last, the outfit has lost two other top militants and 13 of its hideouts unearthed. Militants triggered a blast in a crowded shoe shop in Rajouri town of Jammu division by concealing a timer device in a VCR which went of around Sunday noon, killing three people and injuring 29, seven seriously, an official spokesman said. Indian security forces averted a major tragedy on Srinagar-Jammu national highway at Ramban when they detected and defused a bomb weighing 15 kgs planted on the arterial road, the spokesman said. Alongside the border, three civilians were killed and equal number of persons injured Sunday evening as Pakistani troops shelled Forward Defense Locations in Gurez and Naushera sectors of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said. The shelling from across the border was unprovoked and also damaged 15 shops, a residential house and a government building, the sources said. Though the Indian troops retaliated the loss suffered on the other side was not immediately known, they said. In a related development, an arrested militant of Lashker-e-Toiba has confessed to police on Sunday that the militant outfit is planning a suicide attack on the ancestral house of Army Chief Gen N C Vij Srinagar prompting authorities to shift his family to cantonment. Sajad alias Abu Haneef, who was arrested recently from Mendhar area of Poonch district, told his interrogators that the Army Chief`s house was in the `hit list` of the LeT which had assigned him along with an associate, who was slain in an encounter later, to carry out a suicide attack on Vij`s ancestral house in the old city, the sources said. Meanwhile within the breakaway faction of Hurriyat conference led by Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani suffered a major setback when Jamaat declared that it would work towards forging unity among constituents of the amalgam. Jamaat`s Majlis-e-Shoura (advisory council) met here Saturday evening and set up a three-member committee under its political bureau chief Mohammed Ashraf Sahari to hold talks with other groups regarding the unity in Hurriyat, Jamaat sources said Sunday. The Jamaat`s decision came at a time when Geelani was expecting support for his faction from the parent organization and is seen as a rebuff for his hasty decision to accept chairmanship of the breakaway faction. Also on Friday, a team of American officials and diplomats during a visit of Kashmir valley met some executive members of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief and the American delegation however decided to keep distance from the breakaway faction of the conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani. Earlier a team of British diplomats on a visit to Kashmir met the Hurriyat leadership but decided to avoid meeting Geelani faction as one diplomat was quoted as saying that the new group `favors violent methods to achieve political goals`. Meanwhile Geelani led faction received a boost in arm after OIC invited Geelani instead of Maulana Ansari to its meeting on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York on Friday (26 Sept). /211 End
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