KASHMIR: Twenty-three people - most of them civilians and Islamic rebels - were killed in a sudden escalation of separatist-linked violence in Indian-administered Kashmir, police have said.
Five Hindus were shot dead and three others critically injured yesterday when suspected Islamic separatist militants opened fire on a village in south Kashmir.
"The militants entered their home and opened indiscriminate fire, killing five of the villagers instantly," a police spokesman said. The attack occurred at Balmakote village in Kashmir's Udhampur district, 200 metres north of India Kashmir's winter capital Jammu, he said.
In a separate incident, three village guards were killed by militants in northern Doda district overnight. "The members of the Village Defence Committee were all Muslims.
Three other guards were also injured when the militants started firing on them," the spokesman said.
In another incident in the region, Indian border guards backed by the army killed four rebels in a shoot-out in the central Kashmir district of Budgam, a spokesman for India's Border Security Force (BSF) said.
A civilian who strayed into the cross-fire was also killed.
"The encounter erupted once BSF personnel sealed off a hide-out in the district and asked the militants inside to surrender," he said.
The militants instead opened fire which was returned by the security forces, resulting in the death of the militants who belonged to Kashmir's dominant separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen.
"One of the slain militants was a commander," the BSF spokesman said, adding that a number of other suspects had been arrested and were being questioned.
Three AK-47 assault rifles and a radio receiver set were recovered from the hide-out.
Residents and Hizbul said two of the five dead men were civilians, one of them killed by troops after he stepped outside of his house. Four Indian army soldiers were injured in the gunbattle, officials said.
In other incidents, an officer of the counter-insurgency police was killed and another injured in a militant ambush in southern Kashmir district of Pulwama, while the security forces shot dead four militants in the northern Kashmir districts of Kupwara and Baramulla.
The deadly car bomb attack on the US Consulate in Karachi was a clear warning to Washington and its allies in Islamabad to abandon their war against terrorism, Pakistani authorities said.
Friday's blast, which blew a hole in the consulate wall, killed 11 people including six women and injured more than 50. - (AFP, Reuters)