Eight alleged Muslim militants were killed in gunbattles when they tried to pass into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani side amid an upsurge in rebel violence in the region, India's army said today.
The first clash erupted yesterday after soldiers surrounded a group of heavily armed militants in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control (LoC), a cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
"The encounters are raging along LoC at three places," said an Indian army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel J. S. Brar.
In a separate firefight, a senior member of Kashmir's largest militant group Hizbul Mujahideen was shot dead by troops in Doda district of south Kashmir, police claimed.
After a relative calm, there has been a sudden rise since the weekend in separatist violence across Kashmir - the focal point of two wars between India and Pakistan since partition in 1947.
Indian security officials say a two-decade-old armed revolt against New Delhi's rule may not end in India's part of Kashmir unless Pakistan stops arming, training and sending militants to the region.
Both Pakistan and India claim all of the mountainous region. Pakistan has consistently denied any suggestion it abets an anti-India insurgency that has left more than 47,000 people dead in two decades.
Reuters