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  • Jan 1st, 2005
  • Comments Off on Fresh wave of violence kills 10 in Indian occupied Kashmir
Ten people were killed in the latest outbreak of violence in Indian occupied Kashmir, where authorities called off a rare New Year party out of respect for tsunami victims, officials said on Friday. Occupation troops killed five members of hard-line group Lashkar-e-Taiba, an army spokesman claimed.

"Three of them were killed during a 20-hour long encounter with Indian soldiers," said the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel V K Batra.

The gunfight started around midday Thursday in the village of Ribon, near Sopore town, 50 kilometres north of Srinagar.

Two other were killed in the southern district of Poonch on Friday, a police statement said.

Lashkar wants Kashmir to be joined with Pakistan. The group has carried out suicide attacks in Kashmir since it first launched struggle against occupation Indian troops in 1998.

It was banned by Pakistan after India accused it and another group of being behind an attack on its parliament in December 2001 that killed 15.

In other violence, four Mujahideen died in separate inter-group clashes in the southern districts of Pulwama and Rajouri, police said, adding that suspected freedom fighters shot dead a civilian in Sopore on Friday.

Meanwhile, Kashmir authorities on Friday called off a rare New Year celebration party in a southern health resort out of respect for the victims of the killer tsunami in Asia, a state government spokesman said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005


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