www.ananova.com, Thursday 10th May 2001
Indian paramilitary soldiers beat journalists at Kashmir funerals

Paramilitary soldiers have attacked a group of 17 journalists with sticks and batons as they covered a funeral procession in India's troubled Kashmir province.

Three of the journalists, included a photographer for The Associated Press and a cameraman for Associated Press Television News, were seriously injured.

The attack happened after the camp commander of India's Border Security Force became angry that they had not sought permission to cover the event.

The funeral followed an incident yesterday when two Islamic guerrillas and a border guard were killed when an ice cream cart packed with explosives was detonated outside the border force camp in Megam, 15 miles north of Srinagar.

Civilians say the soldiers fired on passers-by after the explosion.

Six civilians, including two children, were killed and 20 injured, a hospital doctor said.

The journalists were attending the funerals of three of the civilians.

Senior officials with the border force later apologised and promised action would be taken against those responsible.


www.news.excite.ca, May 10, 2001
Journalists beaten by Indian troops in Kashmir

MAGAM, India, May 10 (Reuters) - Seventeen journalists, most of them photographers, were beaten by Indian paramilitary soldiers in Kashmir on Thursday when they went to cover the aftermath of a bomb attack, journalists said.

Eight people, including two members of a suicide squad, were killed on Wednesday in the bomb attack near a security camp at Magam in Budgam district of Kashmir.

The journalists, who included a Reuters reporter and photographer, said they were attacked by troops from the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) after reaching a funeral procession for the victims of Wednesday's bomb.

BSF troops smashed cameras and pushed photographers to the ground, beating them with rifle butts and batons, the journalists said.

BSF Director General Gurbachan Jagat said he had ordered an enquiry into the incident.

"And I have also expressed regret over the incident irrespective of the merits of the case," he told Reuters.

The journalists took refuge in a nearby police station.

The director general of Jammu and Kashmir police, Ashok Kumar Suri, who went to Margam to calm the situation, also said police would investigate the incident.

Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir where some 30,000 people have died in nearly 11 years of separatist rebellion.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's bomb explosion.

www.paknews.org, Posted on Jun 15, 1999 at 07:17:37

Internet Terrorism - Call of Mother India

SAN FRANCISCO, June 14, 1999 - (PNS) The escalation of tension by India and the reported covered attempts by India Government to censor the information coming out of Kashmir is spilling onto Internet.

On internet, the same brutal approach taken by Indian forces in Kashmir, is being reflected by calls to disrupt and destroy Internet sites of Pakistanis and Kashmiris. One such E-Mail chaing letter called 'Call of Mother India' commands Indians to wage terrorist strikes "as you deem fit". And a reminder, "in love and war, there are no rules". Thereby, encouraging and inciting wave of crimes of hacking of computer sites belonging to Pakistanis and Kashmiris.

Pakistan Computer security organization, PAK-CERT has issued world-wide alerts to Pakistanis and Kashmiris to safeguard and defend their computers and report any malicious attempts to local law enforcement immediately. PAK-CERT (website http://pakcert.com.pk) is offering free
help and advise.

Indian internet chain letters also call for disruption of major international news sites, CNN and BBC by mass mailing and mass postings.

Earlier, Indian government issued a ban on Pakistani Television (PTV), violaters to be punished with arrest and jail time. Pakistan Television has been reporting events from Kashmir conflict and Line of Control along with evidence and video footage, exposing the contradictions in statements made by India.

Earlier last month, India escalated the shelling on Line of Control in disputed region of Indian occupied Kashmir. The disputed region hosts 700,000 strong Indian military and para-military forces against the will of the Kashmiris. The human rights organizations have routinely accused and documents gruesome human rights abuses, including murder, torture and rapes of Kashmiris by Indian forces. The Kashmiris are fighting for the right of self-determination, also awarded to them by United Nations resolutions but never implemented.


Kashmir Index

HOME