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Gunfire exchanged again in Kashmir

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Indian police fire teargas at pro-Pakistan demonstrators asking for the freedom of Kashmir from India, in Srinagar, Indian-occupied Kashmir, Saturday, August 5, 2000. Hundreds of civilians and activists of pro-Pakistan Islamic Militant groups came out on the streets of Srinagar to welcome Farida Bahan, a separatist leader who was recently released after spending 5 years in Indian jails. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

August 6, 2000 

SRINAGAR, India (AP) - A Pakistan-based rebel group claimed that two of its fighters stormed an Indian army camp in Kashmir early Saturday and killed six Indian soldiers in an exchange of gunfire.

The shootout continued for several hours in the Sarankot camp, nearly 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Srinagar, said Abu Dalaha, a spokesman for the Lashkar-e-Tayabba, who called the Associated Press on the phone in Srinagar.

There was no immediate comment by the Indian army headquarters in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

The attack came as Indian government officials and the commanders of a main rebel group scheduled a second meeting this week to discuss steps to strengthen mutually agreed cease-fire in the valley.

Also Saturday, suspected militants lobbed two hand grenades in downtown Srinagar, wounding at least three securitymen and six civilians, the police control room said.

The first grenade attack came near Gandhi college in which one security person and two civilian passers-by were wounded, police said.

In another incident outside a mosque, the suspected guerrillas threw a hand grenade at a police jeep, seriously wounding one police officer and his guard and four civilians, police said.

The wounded officer and his guard were hospitalized, but they were out of danger, police said.

No one claimed responsibility for the grenade attacks.

Indian Police and Paramedic personal pull out the body of Harfurth Rolf, a German tourist, in a hospital in Srinagar, Kashmir, Friday August 4, 2000. Rolf was abducted and allegedly killed by Islamic Millitants, July 11, from Rangdum, a town famous for 18th century buddhist monastries. At least 101 people have been killed and hundreds injured in widespread massacres across Jammu and Kasmir during the past 72 hours. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Though the main guerrilla group, Hezb-ul Mujahedeen declared a unilateral three-month cease-fire on July 24, more than a dozen other militant groups have vowed to continue fighting the Indian forces.

The Indian government has responded by stopping all military operations against the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen and appealed to other rebel groups to join the peace process.

Indian government officials and six local commanders of the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen were scheduled to meet Saturday to discuss steps to implement and monitor the cease-fire on the ground.

India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the militants, a charge Islamabad denies.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over control of Kashmir, since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

The insurgency war that broke out in 1989 has killed more than 25,000 people in the Kashmir valley.