December 15, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 10, 1423

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SRINAGAR, Dec 14: Seven Kashmiris and an Indian army soldier were killed in separate overnight clashes in occupied Kashmir, a police spokesman said on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, India said it had found a Pakistani-made surface-to-air missile launcher plus a warhead hidden in thick forest in the north of disputed state.

Military spokesman S.P.K. Singh told AFP the missile was capable of shooting down a plane or helicopter.

Indian paramilitary forces shot dead three Kashmiri fighters in southern Kashmir’s Anantnag district late on Friday, a police spokesman said.

He said a woman was injured during the firing that erupted minutes after paramilitary troops raided a freedom fighters hideout.

Army soldiers backed by paramilitary and counterinsurgency troops shot dead two more Kashmiris in the district of Udhampur overnight.

One of those slain was from Azad Kashmir, the police spokesman said.

Two more Mujahideen were killed in separate overnight encounters with Indian troops in the two border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.

Late on Friday an Indian army soldier was killed and another injured in a clash with Mujahideen in Sogam area of northern Kupwara district, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir, police said.

“The fighting lasted for two hours,” a spokesman said.

The surface-to-air missile was found on Friday in a hideout used by Mujahideen in the Kupwara area of northern Kashmir, said military spokesman Singh.—AFP