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    Militants enter school, 210 girls trapped
    (Agencies)
    Updated: 2004-03-11 15:41

    More than 200 Kashmiri girls were trapped in their school Thursday when suspected Islamic militants entered the building to evade security forces and the two sides began exchanging gunfire, police said.

    The two militants earlier had tried to attack a military base, hurling grenades while trying to enter the heavily fortified post near Khrew, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.

    The militants fled after the guards fired at them, a police officer said on customary condition of anonymity. The militants then took refuge in a girls school some 30 yards (27 meters) from the base, he said.

    About 210 girls, eight teachers and two other staffers were in the building while security forces and militants exchanged fire, the officer said. There were no details immediately available about the safety of the girls and teachers. No casualties were reported.

    Indian Army Col. N. Bali told The Associated Press that the building had been surrounded by troops and that firing was continuing between the holed-up rebels and government soldiers.

    Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based Islamic rebel group, took responsibility for the attack in a call to the local office of the British Broadcasting Corp.

    Jaish-e-Mohammad is one of more than a dozen rebel groups fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. More than 65,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict since 1989.

     
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