The doomed summit in Agra eerily coincided with a massive spurt in killings in Jammu and Kashmir. In the sixty hours since General Musharraf landed, at the time of writing, 81 people were killed in the state; 48 in the Valley alone. This, incidentally, is the highest toll in Kashmir since the Centre called off its unilateral ceasefire two months ago. And in Pakistan, the Hizbul Mujahideen tonight warned that the breakdown of talks would lead to escalation of violence ‘‘as the mujahideen had no alternative but to fight’’. Hizbul leader Salahuddin said India had to take the blame squarely for failure of the talks, which broke down due to its “intransigent and obdurate behaviour”. Significantly, fierce gunbattles broke out between security forces, police and the militants at various places along the 1,000-km Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB). Those killed include 25 civilians (17 in the Valley).
The worst incidents occurred in the two border districts of Baramullah and Kupwara, where the summit’s last day was the bloodiest. In Baramullah, the army allegedly killed six labourers and labelled them as militants while in Kupwara district Lashkar-e-Toiba killed five armymen and injured 10 others in a Fidayeen attack on a camp today. There are contradicotry details emerging on the Baramullah incident. Unidentified militants hurled grenades and fired gunshots towards the battalion headquarters of the 8 JAK in Baramullah town yesterday, injuring a jawan. The Army immediately cordoned off Harrel village and adjoining areas and, witnesses say, rounded up six farm hands. The troops began firing at around 5 p.m. yesterday and continued till late evening.

‘‘We had no inkling about what exactly had happened during the army operation till noon today,’’ said Altaf Ahmad, a resident. ‘‘We heard that they had killed six militants while we were sitting in a identification parade after the troops launched a crackdown in Janbazpora, Stadium Colony and Azad Gunj locality’’. However, when the villagers from Patushai village came looking for their missing children, the story started unfolding. Four among the dead were identified as 18- year-old Showkat Ahmad War and his cousin Mohammad Ashraf War, Mohammad Sultan Dar and Altaf Ahmad Dar. ‘‘We have identified four. They are from our Putushai village and Altaf is my cousin. They have nothing to do with militancy and were arrested from the orchards,’’ said Mohammad Saleem Dar of Patushai. ‘‘Their throats had been slit’’, he said.
In the evening, the 15 Corps in Srinagar claimed they ‘‘eliminated six mercenaries in a neat operation by the security forces near Stadium Complex, Baramullah’’. Interestingly, police sources said four of the six were civilians.