01 January 2005	Saturday	19 Ziqa'ad 1425

SRINAGAR, Dec 31: Ten people were killed in the latest outbreak of violence in Indian Kashmir, where authorities called off a rare New Year party out of respect for tsunami victims, officials said on Friday.

Indian troops killed five members of hard line Islamic militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, fighting for the Himalayan region's secession from India, an army spokesman said.

"Three of them were killed during a 20-hour-long encounter with Indian army soldiers," said the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel V. K. Batra. The gunfight started around midday on Thursday in the village of Ribon, near Sopore town, 50 kilometers north of Srinagar.

Two other Pakistani militants were killed in the southern district of Poonch on Friday, a police statement said. Another four militants died in inter-group clashes in Pulwama and Rajouri, police said, adding that suspected guerillas shot dead a civilian in Sopore on Friday. -AFP