July 27, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16,1423

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SRINAGAR, July 26: Freedom fighters shot dead three activists of occupied Kashmir’s ruling party on Friday. Six freedom fighters, a civilian and two policemen were also killed in the held state during a 24-hour period from Thursday midnight.

Two activists of the National Conference, Sonaullah Khan and Wali Mohammed Khan, were shot dead in the village of Bachipora, near Magam township, 35kms northwest of Srinagar, on Friday.

Another activist, Mohammed Sultan Bhat, was shot dead in the neighbouring village of Kant Bagh, a spokesman for India’s paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) said.

He said troops were sent to both villages to search for the killers. The Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for killing the three men.

“The killings were carried out by Al-Jabbar regiment of the group,” a spokesman said.

Supporters of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference have been a key target of Mujahideen since the launch of the freedom movement in 1989.

Jamiat has in the past also claimed responsibility for killing National Conference backers.

At Galwanpora, in the district of Budgam, BSF troops backed by the army and special police, shot dead two members of the Al-Badr, the spokesman said.

Two policeman and two Mujahideen were killed in a gunbattle near Kulgam, 70kms southeast of Srinagar, on Friday.

“The fierce fighting erupted (Friday) morning after the security forces sealed the village near Kulgam for searches,” a police spokesman said.

Reinforcements were later sent to the village, he said, adding that the slain belonged to the Lashkar-i-Taiba.

Two Mujahideen and a civilian died in Poonch.

Police alleged the Mujahideen had killed the civilian by cutting his throat.

STRIKE: Shops were closed in Srinagar on Friday as the city observed a strike against comments critical of Islam by a hardline Hindu leader.

The strike was called by the Jammu and Kashmir Students Association to demand action against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an ideological parent of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

Senior VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore on Monday called on Muslims to amend their holy texts to remove “portions which preach hatred”.

The student group denounced the comments as anti-Islamic and asked the Indian government to declare as terrorist groups the VHP and two related right-wing Hindu movements, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal.

All commercial centres in Srinagar were closed, as were most schools. However, most traffic remained on the roads.

Police said the strike was partially observed in other areas of the held state, including the towns of Baramulla and Anantnag.

EU REPRESENTATIVE: The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, held talks on Friday with Indian leaders in another effort to calm tensions between Pakistan and India.—AFP