M A I N   N E W S

BSF blasts camp, kills 2
Holed-up jawans rescued

SRINAGAR, March 22 (PTI) — Using mortars and machine guns security forces today blasted a BSF camp killing two militants, who had seiged it, after 19 hours of fierce shoot-out and rescuing about 50 BSF jawans holed up inside the building. One BSF jawan was killed and five others were injured in the operation which began soon after a two-member heavily armed suicide squad of Lashker-e-Toiba stormed and seiged the camp in Chanapora near here around 6 pm yesterday, BSF sources said.

An Indian border guard watches his company headquarters burn after guards fired mortar shells at it following the storming and occupation of the headquarters by militant suicide squads in Srinagar on Wednesday. — AFP

Efforts were on to extricate the bodies of the militants burried under the debris, the sources said.

BSF personnel immediately took positions and launched an attack on the militants soon after they forcibly entered the camp on the second floor of the building of the Small Scale Industrial Corporation.

The sources said the militants were engaged in the shoot-out till all 50 personnel present inside the camp were evacuated.

Militants stopped firing around 9 am today when a portion of the building where they were holed up was damaged. However, they began firing again as the BSF personnel moved close, forcing the security forces to destroy the entire building, the sources said.

The sources said the BSF also targeted a nearby vacant house of a migrant as they feared that the militants might have slipped and taken shelter in it taking advantage of darkness. The house belonging to a Kashmiri Pandit was completely gutted.

In a major encounter, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel gunned down four foreign mercenaries, including a self-styled district commander of Al-Badr, in a fierce encounter at Zakoora on the outskirts of Srinagar early today, BSF Deputy Inspector General B.N.Kabu told PTI.

He said the clash took place when a BSF party of 113 Battalion, along with troops of Zakoora sector headquarters, raided a militant hideout around 6 am following information about presence of militants.

The militants opened heavy fire on the search party resulting in an encounter in which Al-Badr district commander Abu Aslam, Feroz, Chota Usman and one more foreign militant were killed, he said.

Four AK assault rifles, three grenades and some ammunition were recovered from the possession of the slain militants, he said, adding that the troops suffered no casualty in the encounter which lasted for over two hours.

An Army jawan was killed and two others were seriously injured when militants ambushed an Army search party at Helgam village in the Bibehara area of Anantnag district of South Kashmir last night, official sources said today.

The militants, who were hiding in a house, fired at Army troops who entered it to carry out a search and escaped under the cover of darkness, they said.

Militants fired a rocket towards a security picket at Nowhatta in downtown Srinagar yesterday.

However, the rocket missed the target and hit a residential house causing damage to it, he said, adding that the area was immediately cordoned off by the security forces which led to the recovery of a rocket launcher and a fired tail of rocket made in Pakistan.

Three youths suspected to be involved in the act were taken into custody for questioning, he said.

Protesters defy curfew
Tribune News Service and PTI

JAMMU, March 22 — Thousands of people today violated curfew to join a procession taken out from a gurdwara in the Gumat area of the city to Raj Bhavan. They presented a memorandum to the private Secretary of Governor on the massacre of 35 Sikhs in a South Kashmir village on Monday night. More troops had been deployed to assist the police to enforce curfew restricts.

Angry Sikhs made to the gurdwara through lanes and bylanes. By mid-day 15,000 persons had assembled in the gurdwara premises.

Hundreds of Hindus also joined the procession, and the protesters raised slogans against Pakistan and militants sponsored by it, besides the State and Central governments. Some of the protesters were reportedly armed with swords and lathis. They were joined by Shiv Sena activists.

The BJP had given a Jammu band call for today. The State Government had declared a holiday to mourn the deaths at Chati-Singhpora. Roads wore a deserted look, passenger transport services were off the roads on the inter-district and inter-state routes.

The state Government postponed the state school board examination today. But candidates appearing in the CBSE examination were allowed to walk to the examination centres and their roll numbers were treated as curfew passes. Even those who showed railway or air tickets were allowed to move. Most of the people had to travel long distances on foot to reach the railway station.

Barring a stray incidents of smashing of private vehicles by the protesters on the Tawi bridge the bandh passed off peacefully.

The memorandum demanded immediate dismissal of the Farooq-led Government and imposition of Governor’s rule in the State. It announced that from today onwards supply of any commodity to Kashmir would be stopped on the highway and items which are exported from Kashmir would not be allowed to cross Jammu.

The protesters belonging to the Akali Dal, BJP, PDP and other political and religious organisations demanded that the minority communities should be given weapons for self defence. The Sikhs appealed to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, that in case the Government was not in a position to ensure protection of lives and property of the minorities, including the Sikhs they should be given arms. They said they would finish militancy in a short duration.

Mr Narinder Singh Khalsa, said to be close to separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah, said that time had come when the United Nation and the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, should intervene and resolve the Kashmir issue.

He said the Chati-Singhpora incident called for a through probe to establish which agency had been behind the carnage. The memorandum to the Governor demanded immediate steps to identify the killers and bring them to book.