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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Kashmir Korpse Kount |
| 2004-03-12 |
| The siege of a girls’ school by militants and other violence in Kashmir killed 14 people on Thursday, amid spiraling bloodshed not yet eased by ongoing peace efforts between India and Pakistan. Militants and security forces waged a gunfight at the school in the town of Khrew, where the militants had taken refuge after a failed attack on a nearby army camp. Jaish e-Muhammad, a banned militant group, took responsibility for the attack in Khrew in a call to the local office of the British Broadcasting Corp. Police officers at the school said two militants and two soldiers had been killed in the gunbattle. Lt Colonel Kulwant Singh, who took part in the operations, said two civilians were also killed in the crossfire outside the school. After the firing stopped, the army searched the school and some neighbouring homes but didn’t find any militants hiding there, Col Singh said. He said the militants had targeted the nearby army training school for counterinsurgency operations. About 210 girls, eight teachers and two other staff were trapped in the building for almost four hours while security forces and militants exchanged fire. The militants freed the children and the teachers at midday, allowing police officers to enter the campus and lead them out. Scores of Muslim girls wearing headscarves and in long Kashmiri tunics trooped out of the school, crouching as they walked behind a wall from where the militant fire was coming. The body of one woman was found full of bullets and wrapped in a blanket in a drain behind the school. It was unclear whether she had been used as a human shield or shot in the crossfire. The bloodshed continued elsewhere in the Kashmir Valley on Thursday, killing at least seven other people. Orchard worker Javed Ahmad Dar was killed in Paner, 60 kilometres south of Srinagar, when he was mistaken for a militant. Mr Dar did not halt on being asked to do so by soldiers, local officers said on Thursday. Hundreds of mourners sat by his body in his village, asking for punishment of the soldiers who had fired. Early on Thursday, suspected guerrillas shot and killed ruling party member Abdul Khaliq, in his home in Khanda village. In Nowpora-Jageer village, government troops killed three suspected rebels in a gunbattle on Thursday. Two soldiers were also killed and three homes were damaged in the fighting. Separately, a woman wounded in a grenade blast on Wednesday died of her injuries in the hospital on Thursday. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |