August 9, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29,1423

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SRINAGAR, Aug 8: Twenty-one people, including eight civilians, died in a surge of violence in occupied Kashmir during a 24-hour period from Wednesday midnight.

A Hindu family of four, including two children, was gunned down on Wednesday night in the village of Patrada, Rajouri district, a police spokesman said.

Seven Mujahideen and two Indian soldiers were killed in a fierce gunbattle along the Line of Control (LoC) in the district of Poonch, officials said.

In other incidents, four Muslim civilians were killed. The dead included a man who was beheaded and a woman, police said.

Four Mujahideen were killed in clashes elsewhere, the police claimed.

OMAR’S CHARGE: India’s junior foreign minister Omar Abdullah alleged on Thursday that rounds of international diplomacy had not stopped Pakistan’s support for the Kashmiri Mujahideen.

India claims Pakistan promised a US envoy in June that it would “rein in” the freedom fighters.

“There is significant international pressure on Pakistan to see that organizations like the United Jihad Council based in ‘Pakistan-occupied’ (Azad) Kashmir don’t disrupt the polls,” Abdullah, who also heads held Kashmir’s ruling National Conference party, said at a news conference.

“But this doesn’t seem to be having an effect. We have seen that National Conference leaders are being killed.” he said. —AFP