August 23, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

SRINAGAR, Aug 22: Five militants and a woman were killed in occupied Kashmir on Friday and an anti-India hardline group warned of fresh attacks to avenge the killings of four relatives of a militant.

The five militants were killed by troops in the districts of Pulwama, Anantnag, Poonch and Doda, a police spokesman said.

The police alleged militants shot dead a Muslim woman after abducting her on Thursday from her house in Kupwara.

Five people were injured in a grenade blast in Bijbehara, 45kms south of Srinagar, on Friday, he said.

“The grenade hit the pedestrians after missing a security target,” the spokesman said.

WARNING: A hardline group threatened suicide attacks to avenge the overnight killings of four family members of a freedom fighter by Indian forces.

“We will take revenge within a week. We will launch fresh suicide attacks,” Abu Talha, spokesman for the Jaish-i-Mohammad, told a regional news agency, Current News Service.

“(Indian) troops have started killing family members of militants under a new strategy.”

Police said the four slain civilians — including a woman and her two-month-old child — were killed in a gunbattle between militants and Indian soldiers in the district of Anantnag.

They said a member of a pro-Indian group, Ikhwan, also died in the fighting.—AFP