March 16, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 12, 1424

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JAMMU, March 15: Occupied Kashmir’s southern district of Poonch was under tight curfew on Saturday after seven people were killed in a siege of a hotel by militants, police said.

Army and paramilitary forces were marching through the district, which lies along the border some 240km from here, after the daylong standoff at the hotel on Friday.

Three civilians, three policemen and one of the militants were killed when soldiers fought into the hotel following a tip-off that militants were hiding there, police said.

Officials said sectarian tension was high in Poonch, where Hindus are in majority.

Elsewhere in Kashmir, militants allegedly burnt down 45 houses belonging to Hindus in Rajouri district, 150km from Jammu, police said.

Most of the houses were empty as the residents had fled following a recent attack on their village, a police official said.

WOMEN DETAINED: The Srinagar police on Saturday detained 16 women demonstrating for the release of a woman leader arrested last month outside the Pakistani mission in New Delhi, witnesses said.

Several dozen women, most of them veiled, took to the streets of Srinagar, chanting slogans for the release of Anjum Zamrud Habib, leader of the Muslim Khawateen Markaz party.

Police barricaded the protesters near the Kothi Bagh police station and detained 16 women, all activists of a recently set-up women’s rights group, the Khawateen Muttahida Mahaz.

The other demonstrators slipped through the police barricade.

Ms Habib was arrested on Feb 6 outside the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.

Ms Habib is being held under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, which gives authorities broad discretion to hold suspects.

Indian police said Ms Habib’s meeting at the Pakistani mission was arranged by Abdul Gani Bhat, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. The APHC have denied the allegations.

Ms Habib’s party said the seized money was to have been used to fund a trip to Thailand where Ms Habib was to attend a conference on human rights.—AFP