8 die as cyclone hits eastern Indian coast

Kashmiri rebel leader killed

GOPALPUR, India, Oct 11, (Agencies): A severe cyclone damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles Thursday in eastern India, where eight people were killed and about 300,000 forced to move to higher ground.

Cyclone Titli, or Butterfly, had winds blowing up to 150 kilometers per hour (95 mph) when it came onshore, the India Meteorological Department said. It spread rain widely in coastal districts of Orissa state and also hit northern parts of neighboring Andhra Pradesh state.

Eight people died from drowning, wall collapses and fallen trees in the Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh, said Kinjarapu Acchan Naidu, the state labor minister.

Schools were closed and air and train travel curtailed in the region. Authorities also set up more than 800 shelters stocked with food and relief materials.

Electricity and telephone services were cut in a number of areas in both states.

The cyclone was likely to weaken further and become a deep depression by Friday, the meteorological department said.

Naidu

Two Kashmiri rebels killed:

A Kashmiri scholarturned rebel leader and his colleague were killed Thursday in a gun battle with Indian troops, police and residents said, sparking violent anti-India protests by residents in the disputed region.

Indian troops laid siege to a village in northwestern Handwara area early Thursday on a tip that militants were hiding there, police said. As counterinsurgency police and soldiers launched a search operation, a gunfight erupted in which two rebels were killed.

Anti-India protests and clashes erupted as the fighting raged, with hundreds of residents trying to march to the site in solidarity with the militants. Government forces fired warning shots, shotgun pellets and tear gas at the stone-throwing protesters, injuring at least four people.

The gun battle ended later Thursday morning and soldiers immediately recovered the bodies of the two militants. Muneer Khan, a senior police officer, said one of the slain was identified by his parents as top rebel leader Manan Wani, the newspaper Greater Kashmir reported.

Wani was pursuing a doctorate in geology at an Indian university when he abandoned his research in January to join the Hizbul Mujahedeen, Kashmir’s largest rebel group. He soon became a household name and attained the status of a thinker among the rebels who penned articles, arguing such things as why he preferred guns over pens and the nature of the fight in one of the world’s most heavily militarized regions.