February 1, 2003

Militants kill newspaper editor in Kashmir violence
Associated Press

SRINAGAR, India — Guerillas shot and killed the editor of an independent news agency Friday as separatist violence roiled Indian- controlled Kashmir.

Two men entered Parvaz Sultan's office in central Srinagar on Friday evening and shot him twice, using a pistol fitted with a silencer, before fleeing. The attack was one of several that left a total of four people dead and at least 18 injured in the troubled region.

The editor died within minutes of being taken to hospital, said Rashid Pal, Srinagar's deputy superintendent of police.

Sultan was editor of the small Urdu-language News and Features Agency. It was the fifth attack on journalists in Srinagar in the past year, but Sultan was the first fatality. Police have blamed all five attacks on separatist militants.

Police also blamed separatists for two attacks with explosives elsewhere in Jammu-Kashmir state on Friday although no militant group claimed responsibility.

Also, two unidentified guerrillas were killed in a gun battle with paramilitary soldiers south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu- Kashmir state, police said.

More than a dozen Islamic militant groups are fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir, which is split between predominantly Hindu India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan. The militants want independence for Jammu-Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.

In the first explosive attack, suspected rebels lobbed a grenade at an Indian army truck. It missed the truck and exploded on a busy street in Anantnag, 35 miles south of Srinagar, injuring 13 people, police said. One of the injured civilians, identified by police as Aijaz Ahmad, later died in hospital.

Also Friday, six people, including three soldiers, were injured when a bomb planted on a dirt road by suspected militants exploded in Kutamor, 28 miles from Srinagar, police said.

India accuses Pakistan of training and financing the militants. Pakistan says it supports their cause, but denies giving them material aid. More than 61,000 people have died since the insurgency began.