6 killed in Kashmir raid to hunt down top militant

30 August 2003, 18:00 PM

AFP, Srinagar

At least six people died Saturday in a 10-hour gunbattle in Kashmir after Indian troops raided a building they believed housed a mastermind of the 2001 attack on India's parliament, officials said.

The bodies of two rebels and one soldier, Balbir Singh, were recovered after troops secured the house in the summer capital Srinagar, said a spokesman for India's paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF).

"We expect at least three more bodies to be buried under the rubble," the spokesman told AFP. "One of the bodies underneath could be that of Gazi Baba."

Baba, a Pakistani who is believed to be a leading commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, allegedly played a key role in planning the December 13, 2001, attack on India's parliament that set off a military standoff with Pakistan.

The parliament raid left dead 15 people, including the five assailants. Baba, who is around 40, has since been among India's most-wanted militants.

The BSF said two women and four children were evacuated from the house in Srinagar before troops launched their final raid.

"The operation was so neat that all of them were saved," said Indian Kashmir's leader, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

Jaish-e-Mohammad and another rebel group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, were accused of jointly carrying out the parliament attack. The two movements were founded in Pakistan but banned there in January 2002.

The two groups are among the most extreme movements fighting Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between the South Asian rivals and claimed in full by both.

The tension between Indian and Pakistan set off by the parliament attack began to recede in April when Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Srinagar and offered Islamabad a "hand of friendship."

But Vajpayee on Friday ruled out talks with Pakistan until "normalcy" returns to Kashmir, following a three-day, violence-wracked visit to the disputed province.