kammula@plato.engr.umbc.edu (Chandra Sekhar Kammula) (06/28/91)
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Source: [NEWSCLIPS/INFO.SERVICES.MAIL] MAIL/USA
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Subj: MILITANTS KIDNAP, TRY TO EXECUTE SIX ISRAELI TOURISTS IN
NORTHERN KASHMIR
UPI News summary:
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SRINAGAR, INDIA (JUNE 27): Muslim militants kidnapped and tried to
execute six Israeli tourists in the northern Kashmir Valley early Thursday,
but the plan went awry when one of the captives grabbed his guard's automatic
rifle and opened fire on the militants.
One Israeli and one militant were killed in the ensuing gun battle, and at
least three other Israelis were wounded, one critically, police sources said.
The Israeli who grabbed his guard's rifle said he thought he killed or wounded
three militants.
The militants fled with one Israeli hostage. Two women who were taken with the
six men were released unharmed before the shootout.
The militant group Pasdaran i-Inquilabi Islami, a fundamentalist group seeking
the merger of Kashmir with Pakislity for the kidnapping
and charged that those abducted were Israeli commandos. The group said it was
holding a hostage but did not immediately set conditions for his release.
Authorities clamped a curfew on the area where the clash took place. About 40
Israeli tourists in the Kashmir Valley were taken to the police control room
to protect them from further attack while authorities arranged buses to take
them out of the region.
Owners of tourist houseboats on Dal Lake in Srinagar said police officers were
going from boat to boat warning foreigners to leave the strife-torn Kashmir
Valley, but police officials denied all foreigners were being asked to leave.
It was the first time Muslim militants have killed foreigners since a
simmering secessionist movement in the Kashmir Valley erupted into open revolt
18 months ago. It was also the first time tourists have been abducted by the
militants.
Since the militants apparently intended to execute the six hostages, police
hinted that the Israelis may have been targeted because of their nationality
and the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than local political motives.
The episode began about 11 p.m. Wednesday when 16 Muslim militants boarded the
Garden of Eden tourist houseboat in Srinagar's Lake Dal, locked the owner's
family in a small room and kidnapped six Israeli men, an Israeli woman and a
Dutch woman, police sources said.
The captives were taken in three small boats across Dal Lake to the village of
Sada Kadal.
''They made us walk for 20 minutes and took us to a house where they talked to
each other,'' Ella Berman, an Israeli, said in an interview with Indian
television. ''After 10 minutes they took us to a roadside, separated us from
the six boys, tied their hands behind their back and asked us to go.''
''The hands of all six male hostages were tied behind their backs,'' said
Ranjan Bakhshi, the deputy inspector general of police. ''They were lined up
in a row so that they could be executed immediately.''
One of the Israelis, Hagai Kaspi, slipped free, overpowered a militant and
grabbed his AK-47 rifle, police sources said. A brief gun battle followed in
which one Israeli tourist and one militant were killed and at least three
Israelis were wounded, they said.
Police sources identified the slain Israeli as Ivis Khana, 23, but the Press
Trust of India spelled his name Eviz Kahla. The wounded were identified as
Yair Frisch, Eli Mamaa and Yakov Shamesh.
The militants fled with one of the hostages, identified by police as Yair
Yitzhaki.
Kaspi took refuge in a nearby house for several hours, threatening to kill the
owner and his two daughters if they told their neighbors of his presence,
police sources said.
About 6 a.m. he sent the owner of the house to notify police. When authorities
arrived, the Israeli surrendered to police and handed over the weapons he had
captured from the militants - three AK-47 rifles, three magazines of
ammunition containing ts and a hand grenade, police said.
The young Israeli man, wearing jeans and a blood-stained jacket, was taken to
the police control room in Srinagar. He spoke briefly to UPI, saying he
thought he had killed three of the militants, before police officials whisked
him away.
Local residents carried off the body of the slain militant, Ali Mohammed Dar,
shortly after the gunfight. They offered no help to the wounded Israelis, who
were left lying on the road where they were shot for about three hours before
police were notified.
The Kashmir Valley has long been a tourist attraction because of its scenic
Himalayan beauty. Because so many Kashmiris earn their living from tourists,
foreign guests had been considered out of bounds for militants who want to
maintain popular support.
The safety of foreign tourists has slowly been eroded. Indian troops have been
living in former tourist hotels along the Lake Dal waterfront in Srinagar.
Militants have used nearby tourist houseboats as cover to fire rockets at the
troops in the hotel
End of article
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