Arab News

SUNJJAWAN, Kashmir, 29 June 2003 — Two Kashmiri rebels stormed an Indian Army camp yesterday and killed 12 soldiers before being shot dead, in the most serious violence since India and Pakistan began mending ties in April.

The incident came as Indian President Abdul Kalam wrapped up a rare visit to troubled Kashmir by offering prayers for peace at Hazratbal Mosque and meeting soldiers stationed at the volatile frontier with Pakistan.

The two rebels hurled grenades as they infiltrated the Sunjjawan camp, a sprawling compound 10 km (six miles) from the winter capital Jammu used as a transit point for troops coming in and out of the insurgency-torn province.

“The moment they entered they started firing indiscriminately,” an army commander, Brig. J.S. Thind, told reporters at the base.

Most troops were still sleeping, waking up to find themselves under fire. Soldiers were rushed to the barracks under attack, setting off a gunbattle.

“Unfortunately we have suffered some casualties. Twelve were killed and seven injured,” Thind said.

He said the rebels were also gunned down.

“We do not know as yet which place they belong to, but evidently the weapons used appear to be from across the border,” Thind said in reference to Pakistan.

It was the deadliest attack since Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Kashmir on April 18 and offered a “hand of friendship” to archrival Pakistan, which India accuses of fomenting the insurgency.

Nuclear capable India and Pakistan spent much of 2002 on the brink of war amid a series of bloody attacks in Kashmir, including one in May last year at the Kaluchak army camp not far from here in which 35 people were killed.

But since Vajpayee’s initiative the two countries have been working to resume ties cut off since a December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, which New Delhi said was carried out by Pakistan-based militant groups active in Kashmir.

Pakistan plans to send a new ambassador to India, Ahmed Aziz Khan, on Monday, while India is expected to send its new envoy to Pakistan next month. The two countries have also agreed to resume a bus service between New Delhi and the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

In separate violence in Kashmir overnight, the Indian Army shot dead two members of the largest rebel group, Hezbul Mujahedeen, in the central Budgam district, police said. A civilian was also killed in crossfire.

India and Pakistan also traded fire yesterday over their de facto Kashmir border near Kargil, leaving one person dead on the Indian side, police said.

The Indian troops retaliated using long-range guns and hit Pakistani military positions across Dras, a police spokesman said, adding the extent of damage on the Pakistani side was not known.

Reports said more than 20 families migrated to safer places following the morning attack.

Dras, in Kashmir’s Kargil region, was the scene of a brief but bloody clash between Indian and Pakistani troops in May-June 1999 in which nearly 1,000 combatants from both sides were killed.

The violence came hours after Kalam arrived in Srinagar, the province’s summer capital and urban hub of the 14-year insurgency against Indian rule, in the first visit there by an Indian head of state since 1997.

“Let peace come to all of us,” Kalam said over a loudhailer inside Hazratbal mosque. “All of us should become good citizens of the world and the country,” said Kalam.

The president later went to an army post at Uri on the de facto border, just seven km from Pakistani military positions.