Kashmiri Rebel Chief Is Slain, India Says

Indian paramilitary troops claimed Sunday to have killed the Kashmiri chief of a Pakistan-based Islamic guerrilla group.

Paramilitary soldiers raided a village in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir and killed Fayaz Ahmad Khan -- head of the local branch of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Moujahedeen -- a paramilitary official said on condition of anonymity. The raid took place in Aharabal, a village 47 miles south of Srinagar, summer capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.

Aby Sumahaya, a Harkat-ul-Moujahedeen spokesman, confirmed that Khan, 25, had been killed by Indian security forces but said that Khan had been killed in custody.

“He was wounded in an encounter with the Indian forces and later he was martyred in custody,” Sumahaya said by telephone from Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani-held section of Kashmir.

Members of Harkat-ul-Moujahedeen are believed to have carried out the Dec. 24, 1999, hijacking of an Indian Airlines jet from Nepal to Kandahar, Afghanistan. The passengers were exchanged for three militants.

Indian officials say the group abducted six Western tourists in Kashmir in 1995; all but one, who managed to escape, are believed dead. India says Al Faran, a group that claimed responsibility, was a front for Harkat.

Harkat-ul-Moujahedeen is one of more than a dozen militant groups that want the Indian-held part of Kashmir to gain independence or be united with Pakistan. Most residents of Kashmir are Muslims, but India is primarily Hindu.