Fire destroys college hostel
SRINAGAR, May 3 — The 200-room Government Medical College boys’ hostel in central Srinagar was razed to the ground in a devastating fire last evening.

Troops kill six foreign militants
From Our Correspondent

SRINAGAR, May 30 — Six foreign militants and two soldiers were killed in a 16-hour-long encounter near the LoC in Naugam Sector of Kupwara district in north Kashmir yesterday.

Two of the militants are believed to be Afghans and the rest are Pakistani nationals, sources said. A sepoy, Jitender of 2/9 Gorkha Rifles, was killed on the spot while two were injured in the encounter. One of them, Naik Ram Chander Bhat, later succumbed to his injuries.

The encounter started on Saturday afternoon and continued till Sunday morning at Botina Watnar, 8 km inside the Line of Control (LoC) and 12 km west of Naugam at a height of more than 11,000 ft.

Searches for more militants hiding in the area were carried out on Sunday. Four rifles, a grenade launcher, an RPG with eight rockets, a 60 mm mortar, 170 rounds in four boxes, 20 rifle grenades, five hand grenades, a radio set, three IED plastic bombs, 50 electric detonators used for IEDs and 30 gellatin sticks were recovered.

A defence spokesman told TNS here that a routine patrol party spotted fresh footmarks on the snow at Botani Watnar on Saturday morning. The information was passed on to the unit which provided more re-enforcement to trace the hiding militants in the snow-bound barren hills.

The troops traced the militants at 4 p.m. A fierce encounter ensued and continued throughout the night.

This is the first such encounter in Naugam Sector this season. The Army authorities here believe that fresh groups have been attempting to cross over with the melting of snow on the mountains. Only last week two infiltration bids were foiled by the security forces in Tanghdar Sector of Kupwara. Last year over 24 infiltrators were killed in Naugam Sector.

PTI adds: A hardcore militant was killed in a gunfight with troops at Daduwagan-Dooru in Anantnag district. A body bearing bullet marks was found in Nissu in Quazigund area on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.

The security forces recovered arms and ammunition, including two assault rifles and five detonators, from Gonipora forest in Kupwara and Nangli forest in Sopore area of Baramulla.

Militants burn father, infant to death
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 3 — A group of militants recently came to Telna village in Rajouri district and started molesting women. A villager, Mohammad Rial, resisted the militants and had altercation with the guntotting youths, a spokesperson of the Defence Ministry has said.

The infuriated militants torched six mud houses rendering over 50 persons homeless. Before they escaped they pushed Mohammad Rial and his 18-month-old son Rafiq into the flames. Unmoved by the cries, they waited until Rial and Rafiq were charred to death.

The villagers dared to come out of the hiding only after the militants had gone from the area. The charred bodies of Rial and his son were brought out of the debris. When the bodies were taken to the burial ground, villagers raised anti-militant slogans.

The villagers of Telna and adjoining areas are shocked over the incident and have pledged that they would not provide shelter or food to the militants.

The ministry spokesperson said that during the recent weeks more than 20 civilians had been killed in Rajouri, Udhampur and Doda districts because they had resisted militants' moves to rape the women in the area. The spokesperson claimed that the militants had been "frustrated and baffled" by operation "seek and destroy" launched by the Army and had started targeting soft targets to register their presence.

Reports said that the militants, most of them being foreign mercenaries, were under pressure from agencies across the border to show results. Instead of engaging the security forces in direct encounters these insurgents were eliminating innocent civilians in order to ensure that they continued to get wages from across the border and their parents and families were given part of the money by the Pak agencies.

Fire destroys college hostel

SRINAGAR, May 3 (PTI) — The 200-room Government Medical College boys’ hostel in central Srinagar was razed to the ground in a devastating fire last evening.

Four students and an equal number of firemen, including Assistant Director of Fire Services Wali Mohammad, sustained minor burns while fighting the fire, which was caused by a stove burst in the hostel canteen around 6 p.m., Director of Fire Services G.A. Bhat said today.

As many as 18 fire engines were sent to the scene but the wind and dense smoke hampered the fire-fighting operations, Mr Bhat said.

The fire spread quite rapidly as the floors and ceilings of the 30-year-old, three-storeyed structure, situated at Bemina in central Srinagar, were made of wood.

The hostel was almost empty as most of the inmates were out on Sunday evening, he said.

There was no water reservoir in the vicinity of the hostel, nor were there any fire-fighting aids on the premises. Water had to be fetched from an area half a km away, he said.

The fire caused a series of explosions as several LPG cylinders were kept in locked rooms.

Local people helped students in saving their property. Some students said most of their belongings, including books, certificates and bedding, were damaged in the fire.