August 9, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 10, 1424

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SRINAGAR, Aug 8: Indian troops in occupied Kashmir on Friday shot dead a freedom fighter suspected of coordinating attacks throughout India by the Lashkar-i-Taiba, officials said.

Officials claimed the slain man, Manzoor Zahid Choudhary, was a resident of Lahore and alleged he was behind a series of attacks, including a raid last year on a Hindu temple in western India that left 33 dead.

Choudhary was ambushed in the early morning near the village of Kesarmulla, just south of Indian Srinagar in the Badgam district, after a tipoff, a statement by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) said.

It said BSF troops and police spotted Choudhary and an unspecified number of his colleagues and asked them to stop, prompting the Kashmiri fighters to fire automatic weapons and throw several grenades.

“Well-positioned BSF men and the police party retaliated and a brisk gunbattle ensued, which lasted about 15 minutes,” the statement said.

It said troops searched Choudhary’s body and found a laptop computer, a digital diary, a Thuraya satellite telephone and “many incriminating documents”, along with an automatic rifle, three AK-rifle magazines and two hand grenades.

The BSF said the documents revealed Choudhary had sent “two Pakistani militants” to Gujarat in September 2002.—AFP