Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flew into a security nightmare yesterday after a deadly gunbattle erupted at the scene of a rally he was to hold marking the start of army withdrawals from insurgency-wracked Kashmir.
But the troop pullout went ahead and a battalion of 1,000 paratroopers left the northern Kashmiri town of Anantag.
PHOTO: AP
Two militants were shot dead by Indian troops, said K. Srinivasan, senior officer of the Border Security Force, while an army sergeant said a civilian had been killed in the crossfire.
The suspected Islamic militants fired on soldiers, correspondents reported, as the premier's flight took off from the capital New Delhi for Srinagar, the urban hub of anti-India Muslim militancy.
By the time he landed mid-morning in Kashmir's summer capital the rebels had holed up in a half-built house atop a hill overlooking the cricket ground where Singh was scheduled to speak.
Sporadic shooting continued for about three hours after a troop patrol first came under fire, despite a massive security blanket thrown over Srinagar this week.
Residents had scurried for cover as security forces unleashed fire from behind vehicles.
Television channels showed the dramatic firefight live and soldiers were seen occupying the hideout as the clash ended.
A strike called by a hardline separatist faction led by Syed Geelani kept virtually all shops and business closed and the streets largely deserted, reporters said.
The public rally at the Sheri Kashmir stadium, billed as a highlight of Singh's two-day itinerary, was delayed for several hours, officials said.
The premier, who opened his visit with a trip to the city's main Hazratbal mosque, had said he hoped his trip would help put "this chapter of violence in Kashmir behind us."
Singh described his trip as part of an effort "to reach out to the minds and hearts" of Kashmiris and apart from the open-air rally, the prime minister was to visit a mosque and meet Kashmir University's faculty.
The address was to have been the second time since the eruption of insurgency against New Delhi's rule in 1989 that an Indian premier would attend a rally in Srinagar.
Supporters from Singh's Con-gress party had strung banners and party flags around the stadium to celebrate the event, which had been cloaked in supposedly high security in recent days.
In the same stadium former Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee addressed a gathering on April 18 last year and extended a historic "hand of friendship" to nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.
The two countries have since been mending ties, strained by continuing conflict over the control of Kashmir, a scenic Himalayan region held in part by each of the two neighbors and claimed in full by both.
As India and Pakistan work to push forward a peace process for Kashmir, the premier himself announced the troop reduction last week.
The first Indian forces to be redeployed left Anantnag in a convoy of trucks and buses.
The paratroopers, dressed in khaki and sporting green berets, headed for the northern Indian city of Agra.
"The first batch of troops commenced de-induction from the valley on Nov. 17," defense spokesman R.K. Sen announced.
The paratroopers had been stationed at Anantnag, 50km south of Srinagar, for the past six months.
Indian Kashmir's chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed had earlier told reporters that people in the region were "happy" at the troop pullout.
"It should have an impact on the overall situation in the state," he said. "Armies cannot resolve the problems related to hearts of people."
He noted that several quarters in Pakistan had been demanding a cut in the number of troops stationed in Kashmir.
"Now we expect a reciprocal step by Pakistan. There should be no violence [in Kashmir)] there is no reason for it," the chief minister said.
Kashmir's army chief Lieutenant General Nirbhay Sharma said there would however be no lowering of the guard in the army's fight against insurgents. "All our operational duties will be fulfilled," he said.
The army has not said how many troops would be removed from Kashmir as consultations among various security agencies continue.
Military experts estimate that India has about 250,000 troops in Kashmir.
Last Thursday suspected rebels killed 13 people in a wave of fresh violence.
Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday condemned a European Parliament resolution on human rights calling for the release of his critics as “blatant interference.” The EU Parliament resolution, voted by an overwhelming majority the day before, called for the release of lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a popular critic of Saied, who was freed from prison on Thursday, but remained under judicial supervision. “The European Parliament [resolution] is a blatant interference in our affairs,” Saied said. “They can learn lessons from us on rights and freedoms.” Saied’s condemnation also came two days after he summoned the EU’s ambassador for “failing to respect diplomatic rules.” He also
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
RSS