Five Islamic militants, two Indian border guards and a policeman were killed in overnight shoot-outs in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said today.
Two militants and two Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, including an officer, were killed and another BSF guard injured in a fierce overnight clash in the dense forest area of Gool in southern Udhampur district, a spokesman said.
"Both the slain militants are Pakistani nationals and belong to Jaish-e-Mohammed group," the spokesman said.
Jaish is one of two groups that New Delhi blames for an attack on its parliament in December 2001 that killed nine people and sent tensions rocketing between India and Pakistan.
The gunbattle occurred after the Indian guards fanned out to track down militants who had detonated a time-bomb, the spokesman said. The bomb created a huge crater, but did not cause any casualties.
"The BSF personnel came into contact with militants and an encounter began," he said. "The search in the area is still on." Two other militants, one a Pakistani and one a Kashmiri, were killed in the central Pulwama district, the BSF said. Arms and ammunition were recovered from them.
Security forces shot dead another militant overnight in the northern Kashmir district of Kupwara, police said.
Meanwhile, suspected militants killed a Muslim police inspector, Mr Bashir Ahmed, late yesterday near the township of Bijbehara, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Indian Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, police said.
Mr Ahmed was working with the police's counter-insurgency wing, the Special Operations Group (SOG), and was driving to an SOG camp when militants shot him dead. They escaped with his pistol.