An Indian army officer and four separatists have died in a gunbattle in Indian Kashmir.
The fighting in Rajouri, 110 miles north of Jammu, winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, began last night when rebels entered a high-security zone housing senior police and civilian officials, police said.
Police said the heavily armed rebels, who had hurled grenades, fired mortars and used rocket launchers in the battle, had barricaded themselves inside a building in the complex of about 20 government houses.
The disputed Kashmir region is at the heart of a military standoff between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan.
A Muslim militant attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir in mid-May, in which more than 30 people died, nearly sparked a war between the two countries.
Tensions only eased after Pakistan promised to halt rebel incursions from its territory into Indian Kashmir where a separatist revolt has raged since 1989. But a million Indian and Pakistani troops are still massed on the border.