Kashmir violence re-intensifies

The Indian military say incursions continue and the violence is back to pre-June levels

SRINAGAR, India -- At least four soldiers were killed in heavy shelling between Pakistan and India in the disputed Kashmir region, as violence appeared to be returning to pre-May levels.

At least three Indian soldiers were killed on Friday when both sides exchanged fire across the military line of control that divides the disputed region between the two countries, a senior Indian army official said on Saturday.

"There is lot of firing going on both sides, Lieutenant-General V. G. Patankar, chief of 15 Corps of the Indian army operating in the Kashmir Valley, told Reuters.

Indian officials said the shelling took place late on Friday in Tangdar, near the Line of Control in Kashmir's Kupwara district, 87 km (54-miles) northwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's only Muslim-majority state.

On the Pakistan side of the line, an army major died when Indian artillery opened fire, according to an army spokesman in the city of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-ruled Kashmir.

He said the incident on Friday was the result of an exchange of fire. Pakistani troops blamed Indian forces of trying to establish a position on the Pakistan side of the division.

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India blames Pakistan for stoking the revolt and aiding militants crossing the border to carry out attacks on Indian territory.

Islamabad denies the charge, but has vowed to crack down on militant insurgency.

India insists that it will not resume high-level talks with Pakistan until what it calls "cross border terrorism" ceases.

"This time the shelling could be because infiltration is going on, infiltration has started," India's Patankar said.

Close to a million soldiers are still massed along the border between the countries. The latest incident of shelling came after India announced on Friday dates for holding elections in the rebellious Jammu and Kashmir state.

In Jammu, winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, police said they had arrested a militant involved in the July 13 massacre of 24 civilians at a mainly Hindu city slum.

"As per the interrogation two terrorists have actually committed the carnage. One of them has been shot dead yesterday and another has been captured today," the inspector general of police in the Jammu zone, P. L. Gupta, told a news conference.

Gupta identified the militant as Mohammed Abdullah, aged 19, alias Abu Talah, of Qasba Marhal Chak in the Multan district of Pakistan and belonged to the banned Lashkar e Tayyeba (LeT) group.

Elsewhere in Indian-controlled Kashmir, two Indian paramilitary soldiers and two rebels were killed in a gunbattle on Friday night in Malpora village west of Srinagar, a police spokesman said.

Officials say there was a brief lull in violence in Kashmir after Pakistan pledged in late May to halt militant incursions into Indian Kashmir from its soil. But they say the violence is now back at previous levels.

More than 33,000 people have been killed in separatist violence in the region since the rebellion broke out in 1989. Separatists put the death toll closer to 80,000.