Army officer, four militants killed in Kashmir gunbattle

Mar 5, 2010, 6:48 GMT

Srinagar, Kashmir - An army officer and four Muslim militants were killed in a two-day gunbattle in India-administered Kashmir, officials said Friday.

Four soldiers were wounded in the clash with the militants belonging to the Hizbul Mujahedin outfit at a village in the Pulwama district, 40 kilometres south of state capital Srinagar.

Captain Deepak Sharma was killed in the encounter, which began Wednesday and ended Thursday evening, army spokesman Colonel JS Brar told reporters in Srinagar.

'Bodies of four militants were found from the area after the fierce gunbattle, which lasted for over 30 hours,' Brar said.

Three of the slain militants were senior commanders of the Hizbul Mujahedin in southern Kashmir.

The Hizbul Mujahedin is among the largest militant outfits in India-administered Kashmir and has its base in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Indian security officials said the militant group mostly draws its fighters from India-administered Kashmir, unlike other militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

New Delhi has repeatedly accused Islamabad of fuelling the Muslim separatist insurgency in the part of Kashmir it administers. The violence has left more than 45,000 people dead over the past two decades.

Kashmir has been at the root of tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

India and Pakistan administer portions of Kashmir, but both claim the region in its entirety. They have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.