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3 dead in battle at shrine

Rahul Bedi

Indian security forces and armed separatists fought a two-hour gunbattle in the complex of the holiest Muslim shrine in the northern Indian state of Kashmir yesterday in which at least three people were killed.

Officials said the encounter with armed separatists from the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front started after they tried to force their way into the Hazratbal mosque in the state capital, Srinagar.

Three policemen were also injured, one of them seriously.

Officials in Srinagar said the situation in and around the shrine which houses the holy relic, was tense as army troops surrounded the mosque and patrolled the area around it.

Kashmiri insurgents occupied the Hazratbal shrine in 1993, holding 38 hostages for 33 days before the security forces lifted the siege.

Yesterday's fighting came at a time when a handful of Kashmiri separatists fighting for independence were holding talks with the federal Government to end the six-year-old insurgency.

Over 13,000 people have died in Kashmir's war of independence since December 1989.

Officials feared yesterday's clash could hamper Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's plans to hold voting in Kashmir's six parliamentary seats in May as part of India's general elections.

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