Five Muslim guerrillas have been killed in a clash with Indian security men near a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, an official said today.
The defence official said today's clash occurred in Rajouri district, 175 kilometres north of Jammu, the state's winter capital.
The official said it was not clear whether the rebels were trying to enter Indian Kashmir from Pakistan or were crossing into Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Nearly a dozen Muslim militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir state which lies at the heart of decades of hostility between India and Pakistan.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Islamic militants and sending them across the border into Jammu and Kashmir, the mainly Hindu nation's only Muslim-majority state.
Pakistan denies direct involvement in the nearly 13-year-rebellion which has killed 35,000 people, saying it only gives moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self determination.
Separatist violence has continued since a new government took power on November 2nd promising to bring peace to the disputed Himalayan state.