M A I N   N E W S

2 Majors, 13 militants killed

SRINAGAR, June 23 (UNI) — Eight security men, including two officers of the rank of Major, 13 militants, mostly foreigners, were among 25 persons killed in the state in the past 24 hours while during the same period forces seized RDX and other arms and ammunition.

Three blasts rocked Srinagar city this afternoon. The blasts were so powerful that they could be heard in the entire Civil Lines and uptown areas.

Security forces cordoned off Khulhama village near Tangmarg in Baramulla following information that militants, who had fled from Hajibal after an encounter with the forces, were hiding there. Official spokesman said when the operation at Khulhama was in progress, a bus coming from Srinagar was asked to stop by security forces. As the bus slowed down, militants travelling in it fired upon security forces. Security forces also retaliated and in the cross-firing an Army Major was killed and five other soldiers were injured.

Two militants, besides the driver and the conductor of the bus, were also killed.

A police statement released this evening said five militants and two more soldiers were killed in an encounter at Hajibal last evening.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police during a search operation at Sawjian last evening. Three militants have been killed so far in an encounter which started between militants and security forces during a search operation at Hafrada woods in Kupwara last night.

A report from Baramulla quoting police said that a Major and three other ranks were killed in a shootout which lasted for about four hours.

Meanwhile, tension gripped several areas of the city today following the killing of a youth in an alleged fake encounter, with police using batons and tear gas to disperse angry protesters who pelted stones and damaged vehicles.

Trouble began after the police handed over the body of Aijaz Ahmad Bazaz to his family. Bazaz, a police spokesman said, a battalion commander of the Hizbul-Mujahideen who masterminded two IED blasts at Lal Chowk and Maisuma here in July 1996, was killed in an encounter in the Parimpora area yesterday.

But Bazaz’s family said the youth, an engineering student in Bangalore who returned on June 14, was arrested by security personnel from the Bemina area two days ago and later killed in a “fake encounter”.

As the news of Bazaz’s killing spread, angry protesters took to the streets and pelted stones in the Maisuma, Gawkadal, Manderbagh and Red Cross areas. The police used tear gas and batons to disperse the mobs.