Herald-Sun

India Clashes Leave 15 People Dead By QAISER MIRZA : Associated Press Writer Nov 4, 2001 : 9:03 am ET

SRINAGAR, India (AP) -- Gunbattles with suspected Islamic militants left 15 people dead in the northern Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir over the weekend, police said Sunday.

In one incident, Indian troops shot and killed 10 militants believed to members of the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which is fighting to separate the region from India, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

The militants opened fire on the soldiers after being asked to identify themselves, and then fled into hills near Loren, about 145 miles northwest of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir, as India's part of disputed Kashmir is called.

The soldiers chased them, and then the two sides engaged in a four-hour gunbattle, the official said. The troops found 10 bodies at daybreak and recovered a large amount of arms and ammunition from a nearby guerrilla hide-out.

In a separate attack, suspected Islamic militants sneaked into an Indian army camp in Kashmir, killing four soldiers and wounding five others, police said.

One guerrilla also was killed in that Saturday night raid, which occurred at Dilgam, 40 miles south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir.

The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba later claimed responsibility for the attack in telephone calls to the media.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is one of more than a dozen rebel groups that have been fighting for the Himalayan region's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989.

Hindu-dominated India accuses Muslim Pakistan of supporting an Islamic insurgency in Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority province. Pakistan denies it aids the insurgents but calls them freedom fighters.

Human rights groups say at least 60,000 people have been killed in the fighting since 1989.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over control of Kashmir since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001