Srinagar, December 8
About 48-hour-long hostage crisis involving four family members of senior PDP leader in Baramula, ended with the killing of two Pak militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit by the police and the security forces today.

In another major incident at least 32 persons, including two police personnel, were injured in a grenade explosion at Anantnag in south Kashmir today. The police said that the militants hurled a grenade at the old KMD bus stand, Anantnag, at 11.50 this morning, leading to injuries to 32 persons. Three seriously injured were shifted to hospital here where the condition of one constable, Manzoor Ahmad, was stated to be critical. A police Gypsy was damaged in the explosion.

A police spokesman here said that two militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba were killed in an encounter with the police and security forces at Kanispora village in Baramula district, about 60 km north of here, this afternoon. They were identified as Sultan Bhai and Aslam Bhai from Pakistan.

Acting on a specific information, the security forces and police cordoned off the house of Wajahat Hussain Qureshi, a senior PDP leader at Kanispora, last night, where the militants were hiding. “The forces very tactfully took out to safety four family members who had been taken hostage by the terrorists”, the police spokesman said.

Two AK rifles, six magazines and some explosive material were seized from the slain militants, the police said.

Wajahat Hussain Qureshi, however, was not inside the house when the militants managed to barge in.

Jammu, December 8
With a view to streamlining functioning of the Miran Sahib-based resin and turpentine factory, the Jammu and Kashmir Government has decided to send a team of officer to Himachal Pradesh to study the system of processing resin there.

This was decided at a meeting of the J&K Industries that was presided by the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, here today.

Mr Sharma said that the team would study the factors that had resulted in Himachal Pradesh excelling in production of resin and turpentine.

It is worth mentioning that The Tribune had reported that the only resin factory in the state at Miran Sahib was on the verge of closure because of non-availability of raw material. Over 160 employees of the factory were sitting idle and were not getting their wages regularly.

Two other government-owned resin factories at Sunderbani and Rajouri have already been closed.

However, the private resin factories were flourishing as there was no shortage of raw material for them.

The only surviving resin factory at Miran Sahib was established in 1938 and its functioning started deteriorating a few years ago because of faulty planning.

Jammu, December 8
A gurdwara in the border village of Dagwar in Poonch district was damaged last night when bullets hit its roof and compound wall.

The locals claim that some rockets were fired by Pakistani troops, but the authorities denied this and said that Indian soldiers had fired the shots when they became suspicious of militants crossing into Indian territory from across the Line of Control.

The police said that there was heavy firing by the Indian troops to foil the infiltration bid. Dagwar is the infiltration route of the terrorists from occupied Kashmir.

Police officers visited the spot this morning to enquire into the incident.