A 20-hour gun battle at a hotel seized by militants who had earlier killed an officer at a police checkpoint in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, ended Jan. 7 after police killed two militants, including a Pakistani citizen. A police officer and a civilian were killed, and 10 others wounded. Jammu and Kashmir authorities said both militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist group that has been blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Other sources said Jamait-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the initial attack. (NYT, AlJazeera, Jan. 8)

UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston on Jan. 8 urged an investigation into possible Sri Lankan war crimes after authenticating a video of captive members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) being executed by members of Sri Lanka's military. Alston said that an investigation by experts in forensic pathology, forensic video analysis, and firearm evidence concluded that the video was authentic.

Six months after the end of Sri Lanka's civil war some 245,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) remain in camps, where aid donors are increasingly concerned over harsh conditions. A UN official warned Sri Lanka that international donors are less likely to provide funding if authorities continue to restrict IDPs' freedom of movement. Neil Buhne, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sri Lanka, said "donor fatigue is really in respect to continuing these closed camps."

Just a day after India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram declared that Naxalite violence will not disrupt the Oct. 13 elections in Maharashtra state, the guerillas struck Gadchiroli district Oct. 8, killing 17 police officers. A 300-strong band of Naxals attacked a 40-man patrol of police and commandos of the elite anti-Naxal force C-60, just a kilometer from the Lahiri police station. A pitched battle ensued for four hours.

Pakistan's Supreme Court adjourned a hearing Aug. 3 on whether to re-arrest Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group said to have been behind last year's Mumbai attacks. Detained after the attacks, Saeed was released in June because of lack of evidence. The government appealed the release, but the hearing on the appeal was adjourned because the attorney general was not prepared for the case. No new date was set. (Reuters, Aug. 4) Meanwhile, two men and a woman convicted of the 2003 Mumbai attacks will be executed by hanging, an Indian court ruled Aug. 6. Indian investigators linked those attacks as well to Lashkar-e-Taiba. (NYT, Aug. 6)

The Supreme Court of Pakistan July 31 declared that former president Pervez Musharraf violated the constitution when he declared emergency rule in November 2007. The court also found that Musharraf's removal of many members of the judiciary, including current Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, and subsequent appointment of Abdul Hameed Dogar as chief justice were unconstitutional. Judges appointed in consultation with Dogar were removed from office.

Under UN auspices, Nepal has started freeing an estimated 3,000 child soldiers from camps holding former Maoist guerilla fighters. Demobilization of the child soldiers, and their transfer to rehabilitation programs, is a key part of Nepal's peace process. The UN welcomed the move as a "significant milestone" for the Himalayan nation. Maoist guerillas ended a 10-year insurgency in November 2006, signing a peace deal that brought them into the government. They won the most votes in 2008 elections, but left the government earlier this year in a row over their leader's attempt to fire the army chief. Some 24,000 former fighters have been confined to UN-monitored camps since the peace deal. Of these, the UN has identified about 3,000 as being under the age of 18. (BBC News, July 17)

Thousands of protesters marched on an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir, following the apparent murder of a young woman. Protesters say that the young student from the Kupwara district died after being assaulted by a member of India's Territorial Army. A general strike over the incident has brought the Kashmir Valley to a standstill. A soldier has been charged in the killing. The death is the tenth in recent weeks to be blamed on the security forces. (BBC News, July 10)