Indian soldiers battle Islamic militants

Indian soldiers traded gunfire with Islamic militants during a clash in India’s part of Kashmir that killed one soldier and critically wounded another, the army said today.

The gunbattle started yesterday when soldiers cordoned off the village of Ayatmullah, acting on intelligence that insurgents were hiding there, said army spokesman Col. Hemant Juneja.

The two sides were still trading gunfire this morning in the village, nearly 75 kilometres north of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, Juneja said. There was no immediate word on militant casualties.

Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan, and nearly a dozen rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 in New Delhi’s part of the territory for independence or merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebel groups. Islamabad counters that it only provides diplomatic and moral support to the insurgents.