SRINAGAR, Oct 5: India’s army said on Saturday it had killed seven suspected militants in 24 hours in India-held Kashmir.

The army alleges it has been fighting 30 to 40 militants who crossed the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistani side of the disputed territory last month.

“Four militants were killed in the Fateh Gali area,” Colonel Rajesh Kalia said and added three other suspects were killed in another gunbattle in nearby Gujardur area the previous day.

Col Kalia claimed that assault rifles, pistols and rocket launchers were found at the scene of the latest gunfight, just west of the abandoned village of Shala Bhattu in the Keran sector.

The fighting has been taking place in and around Shala Bhattu, 140km northwest of Srinagar, in densely forested terrain high in the Himalayas since September 23.

The Indian army says the “infiltrators” may include some Border Action Teams (BATs) that it says are a mix of specially trained Pakistani troops and militants. But Islamabad has denied any involvement in the fighting.

It is said to be one of the longest Indian army operations to flush out militants in Kashmir in recent years. “The terrorists are holed up,” General Bikram Singh, the Indian army chief, told reporters on Friday, but added “it is difficult, treacherous terrain”.

“We will take them on. It is a question of time,” he said, declining to indicate when the fighting might end.

An Indian army commander said late last month 12 suspected militants were killed in Shala Bhattu. No other casualty figures have been given since the fighting erupted.

Kashmiri groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for the disputed region’s independence or merger with Pakistan, in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.—AFP