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Troopers Brawl, Armed Clashes Leave 24 Dead in India-Occupied Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India, Sept 10 (News Agencies) - At least 24 people were killed in Kashmir on Monday, including five soldiers in a barracks brawl, as a deadline for Kashmiri Muslim women to adhere to a strict Islamic dress code or face possible attack expired.
An Indian military spokesman said an army private shot dead four fellow soldiers earlier Monday before turning the gun on himself.
Two other soldiers were injured in the incident, which took place at the army's Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur, 40 miles north of the Kashmiri winter capital of Jammu.
According to Lieutenant Colonel S.P.K. Singh, the private, Sanjeev Kumar, suddenly started spraying fire from his combat rifle at other soldiers on guard duty at the facility.
Four soldiers were killed in the shooting spree, after which Kumar reportedly shot himself.
Elsewhere in Kashmir, an infant was among 19 people killed in separate clashes on Monday, a police spokesman said.
A soldier died and six others were injured in a blast in northern Kashmir, he said, adding the casualties occurred when a security car hit a landmine in the northern Kupwara district.
Meanwhile, a senior executive from India's Tata business group survived a mine blast that damaged his vehicle Monday at a health resort 25 miles north of the Kashmiri summer capital of Srinagar.
The police said Tata executive V. Chandershekhar was in Kashmir as a guest of the state government to survey potential sites for industries in the troubled region.
The police spokesman said three Islamic resistance activists and one soldier were killed in a firefight in southern Kashmir district of Poonch. Three troopers were also injured. Soldiers at a nearby site killed another activist.
Indian soldiers also shot dead eight more Islamic activists in Kupwara in separate gunbattles, he said, adding that a six-month-old girl, who was among the 19 people injured in a landmine blast in Srinagar Sunday, succumbed to her injuries on Monday.
Activists also allegedly killed four civilians since Monday morning, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, a deadline for Kashmiri women to wear only Islamically approved clothing outdoors ended Monday, but the campaign was opposed by Kashmir's largest resistance group, Hizbul Mujahedeen, as well as the heavily armed Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen.
Hizbul and the Harkat said in separate statements that the dress code campaign being enforced by the lesser-known Lashkar-e-Jabbar outfit was unfair.
"No one can force dress codes on women," Hizbul spokesman Salim Hashmi said.
Harkat spokesman Mujahid Amirudin added that Islam does not permit people to attack women who dressed according to their choice.
Other influential groups here have distanced themselves from the campaign, instigated and spearheaded by Lashkar-e-Jabbar, which has already carried out several acid attacks on unveiled women.
The group's campaign has received the apparent support of Syed Ali Geelani - a hardline senior leader of Kashmir's main political separatist alliance, the All Party Hurriyat Conference.
Although he expressed concern at the use of corrosive acids to attack women not adhering the Islamic dress code, Geelani also said, "Muslim women should move about in veils or cloaks."
The pro-Pakistan Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen outfit has lent its support to the movement as well.
More than 35,000 people have died in Kashmir since the launch of the Islamic uprising against Indian rule in 1989.
Pakistan, which puts the death toll at 70,000, has been accused by India of participating in "cross-border terrorism", but Islamabad claims it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
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