April 29, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1429

SRINAGAR, April 28: Indian soldiers shot dead a senior Kashmiri leader on Monday, dealing a fresh blow to region’s main militant group which has lost nearly a dozen senior members in firefights with occupation forces this year.

Police said Zahoor Ahmad Waza, “financial chief” of Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed along with an associate near Palhalan area, about 30 kilometres north of Srinagar.

“The Hizbul Mujahideen has suffered immensely,” B. Srinivas, a senior police official, said.

The killings come weeks after the chief spokesman of the Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested in occupied Kashmir.—Reuters