The following table lists events that have occurred of import in the Central Asia region since April 2002
 
 

Date	Country	Event Description	Source
05/06/2002	Nepal	Government troops and police stage an attack on Maoist rebel training camp in Rolpa, killing some 400 rebels	AP
05/06/2002	India	India conducted massive and provocative  military exercise near the border with Pakistan	P-AP
05/08/2002	Nepal	Battles between Maoist militants and kill 104 soldiers and police who were trying to surround 500 guerilla fighters.  Reinforcements being flown in by helicopters were delayed by weather.	P-AP
05/09/2002	Russia	A bomb exploded during the May Day parade in Makhachkala, a town in Russia's southern Dagestan region bordering the Chechen republic.  20 were killed including children and 90 wounded.	P-CNN
05/10/2002	Nepal	Government officials have received what appears to be an offer to hold peace negotiations with Maoist rebels, however REUTERS reports the offer may not be genuine	P-R
05/17/2002	India	A deadly incursion in  Kashmir has the Indian government contemplating an appropriate response. An atttack on an Army base in Jammu killed 34 including wives and children	P-R
05/17/2002	India	An exchange of mortar fire heightens tensions in Kashmir as Indian and Pakistani troops clash in the disputed region.	P-UPI
05/20/2002	India	2nd Indian Army Camp attacked by militants in Kashmir, killing four, wounding 12	P-BBC
05/21/2002 -  05/31/2002	India- Pakistan	Escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan are far too numerous to report.  Daily mortar fire and responses in kind across the line of control have been typical, with several events such bombings of buses indicating terrorist activities in the Kashmir are on the increase.  The world's major powers are putting on maximum pressure on both sides to cool off, fears of conventional war escalating quickly to nuclear war.	MILNET
06/10/2002	India	Indian police today arrested a prominent separatist leader in Kashmir, accusing him of funneling money to Islamic militants who want to unite the embattled Himalayan region with Pakistan. The arrest underscored the continuing volatility of the situation in Kashmir, the locus of a hostile standoff between India and Pakistan, even as U.S.-led diplomatic efforts have appeared to ease tensions between the two nuclear powers.	WP
10/05/2002	India	An independent advisory group funded by the U.S. government has recommended that the administration add India, Laos, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam to its list of countries that restrict religious freedoms.	P
11/22/2002	India	India has been unable to get Russia to commit to a regular stream of uninterrupted supplies and spare parts for New Delhi's military forces, Defense News reports. New Delhi purchases about US$400 million in military spare parts and supplies from Moscow annually, but a meeting of the Indo-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Military-Technical Cooperation brought to light what Indian officials have called the "erratic supply of spares, especially for Soviet-origin artillery, infantry and air-defense systems for the last year."	P-DN
11/22/2002	India	Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said Washington has assured New Delhi that it will not sell more F-16 fighters to Pakistan, the Indo-Asian News Service reports. New Delhi had expressed concern over the resumption of shipments of military supplies from the U.S. to Pakistan. Items cleared for sale from the U.S. to Pakistan included spares for radar systems, used transport aircraft, helicopter gunships and spare parts for the F-16s that Pakistan already has, Sinha said.	P-IONS
11/25/2002	Kashmir	Indian security forces cornered and shot dead three Islamic militants who attacked the Raghunath Temple in Jammu, Kashmir, a site revered by Hindus, the BBC reports. The gunbattle between police and the shooters went on for hours and left at least 50 people injured as hundreds of Hindu pilgrims attempted to flee to safety. By the end of the siege, nine civilians, two Indian security troops and two militants were dead. Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani blamed Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Kashmiri separatist organization	P-BBC
11/25/2002	Nepal	Intense search and destroy operations by government security forces resulted in the deaths of 50 Maoist rebels in Nepal, the Press Trust of India reports. A group of security troops encountered the rebels on the border of the Gorkha and Lamjung districts, about 155 miles from the capital of Kathmandu. The Maoist area commander was killed during the battle and government troops recovered a large stash of arms and ammunition.	P-PTI
11/26/2002	China	Russian Space Forces technicians registered the launch of a Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile on Saturday, reports the Itar-Tass News Agency. The missile, reportedly a Dong Feng-31, was launched from the Wuzhai testing range in the Taklimakan desert. The missile reportedly hit a target 1,056 miles from the testing ground.	P-TASS
11/26/2002	India	India's military procurement procedures will be made public and posted on the Defense Ministry's website, reports the Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. "The procurement procedures will no longer be secret ... it's time to forge a new template for private sector participation in the defense sector," said Defense Secretary Subir Dutta. Major tenders will also be posted on the Internet to allow private firms to compete for contracts.	P-AAIW
11/26/2002	China	Chinese President Jiang Zemin said he would be willing to draw down the number of missiles currently facing Taiwan in exchange for the United States reducing its arms supplies to the island, the China Times reports. Jiang made the offer during his summit meeting with U.S. President George Bush in Texas in October. China has approximately 400 missiles deployed along its southeastern coast opposite Taiwan.	P-CT
12/07/2002	Bangladesh	DHAKA, Bangladesh  — Bombs tore through four movie theaters packed with Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 200, police and witnesses said...were believed planted in the projection rooms of the theaters...Similar bombings of a theater and a circus show killed 6 people and wounded 200 in September in the southwest.	F-AP

Sources:
 

Legend  (P-xxx indicates "reported by Periscope and xxx indicatesthe original source)
Online
	AP	Associated Press Online Arhives
	BBC	British Broadcasting Corporation
	BN	Bloomberg News
	CNN	Cable News Network
	FOX	Fox News Network online
	J	Janes News Brief (email)
	LAT	LA Times Online Archives
	MSNBC	MSNBC Online Archives
	P	Periscope  (email)
	R	Reuters online
	SJMN	San Jose Mercury News Archives
	UPI	United Press International
	WP	Washington Post Archives
	WTC	World Tribune.com
Hardcopy
	AAIW	Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
	AFP	Agence France-Presse
	CT	China Times
	DN	Defense News
	DTUK	The Daily Telegraph, U.K.
	FTUK	Financial Times, U.K.
	IANS	Indo Asian News Service
	LTUK	London Times, U.K.
	MENL	Middle East Newsline
	PTI	Press Trust of India
	TASS	Russian News Agency :ITAR-TASS
	TGUK	The Guardain, U.K.
	TLUK	The Telegraph, London, U.K.
	TTOI	The Times of India
	TTOL	The Times of London

 
 

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