KASHMIR’S deadliest day of violence since the resumption of peace talks claimed 23 lives yesterday, according to official sources.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf invited a delegation of Indian MPs to his home in Islamabad for tea today, following a peace conference between officials from the South Asian nuclear rivals.

Dozens of rain-soaked Indian passengers jostled onto a luxury bus today that honked wildly as it headed for Pakistan, resuming a transportation link disrupted 18 months ago by threats of war between the hostile, nuclear-armed neighbours.

PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf yesterday said he had been ready to use atomic weapons if Indian forces entered Pakistani territory earlier this year during a peak in tensions — an admission of how close the neighbours came to nuclear war.

PAKISTAN said yesterday it would withdraw hundreds of thousands of troops deployed along its border with India to their “peacetime locations”, matching a similar pledge by India.

Pakistan successfully carried out a second test of its medium-range, surface-to-surface missile in less than a week today.

New Delhi, India

The Indian army has withdrawn three strike divisions from the Pakistan frontier as militant infiltrations decline, senior army and government officials said today.

Pakistan today test fired another short-range missile called the HatfII or Abdali, an army spokesman said.

Indian and Pakistani troops are exchanging heavy mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire along the line which divides Kashmir.

At least six people, including five civilians, have been killed as India and Pakistan continue to exchange mortars and artillery fire across the ceasefire line dividing the disputed Himalayan province of Kashmir.

The number of casualties in a bombing in Kashmir has risen.

One person has been killed and at least 13 injured in an explosion in the disputed Himalayan province of Kashmir.

Indian and Pakistani border guards exchanged assault rifle and machine gun fire today, hours before the Indian Parliament was to issue a response to a terrorist attack that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad.

A deadlock that stalled India’s Parliament for a week was broken today when the deputy speaker agreed to allow a debate that could lead to a censure of the government over riots in the west of the country.

India today claimed that one of its diplomatic staff has been abducted in Islamabad by Pakistani intelligence personnel, apparently in retaliation for the arrest of a Pakistani diplomat earlier in the week.

A rare joint session of India’s Parliament, the third since independence, today passed an anti-terrorism bill that the opposition said will curtail civil rights.

G.M.C. Balayogi, the speaker of the Indian Parliament’s lower house, was killed today in a helicopter crash in southern India where he had attended a peace rally. He was 50.

A group of Hindu nationalists have marched to the Indian Parliament and burned Valentine's cards.

The Indian army today said it had killed five Pakistani members of an Islamic militant group.

The US Secretary of State says he believes India and Pakistan are pulling back from the brink of war.

Heads of state in South Asia are trying to calm the tension in the region, which is teetering on the brink of war.

The leaders of Pakistan and India have shaken hands at a South Asian Summit in Nepal.

The leaders of India and Pakistan will come face to face later today as their armies continue to build up on their shared border.

The Indian Prime Minister says war with Pakistan can be avoided if the nuclear-armed rivals can solve their differences through diplomacy.

Suspected Islamic militants have killed eight people, including two army soldiers in Kashmir and Punjab.

Indian security forces have killed eight alleged Kashmiri militants.

More than two dozen militants have been detained in Pakistan in a bid to crack down on those believed to be responsible for an attack on the Indian Parliament.

Two Indian soldiers have been killed in border clashes with Pakistan.

India is claiming two of its border guards have been killed by Pakistani troops in a clash in the disputed area of Kashmir.

America is cutting the finances of two more alleged terrorism groups.

Pakistan-based Islamic rebel group Jaish-e-Mohammad has threatened to carry out terrorist attacks in major Indian cities.

Police and paramilitary forces in New Delhi have fired shots at the gates to the Indian Parliament after an explosion.

Armed gunmen who stormed the Indian Parliament in New Delhi today are reported to have been planning to detonate a huge car bomb at the site.

At least 13 people died today when gunmen stormed the Indian Parliament in New Delhi.

There has been a gun battle outside the Indian Parliament.

Opposition politicians have paralysed the Indian parliament, insisting the coalition government resign over an arms bribery scandal.