SRINAGAR: Indian security forces killed seven suspected militants on Monday in a gunbattle in India-held Kashmir near the de factor border with Pakistan, an Indian army spokesman said.

The seven were killed after heavy firing broke out between military forces and rebels at Dardpora, a remote village 140 kilometres (80 miles) northwest of the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar, army spokesman Nitin Narhar Joshi told AFP.

“So far seven militants have been eliminated in the gun battle that ensued.

We suspect more militants to be in the area,” Joshi said.

“The operation is still going on. A cache of arms and war-like stores were recovered from the area,” he added.

About a dozen militant groups have been fighting Indian forces in its controlled portion of Kashmir since 1989 for independence or for merger of the territory with Pakistan.

The fighting has left tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, dead.

Last week the Indian army's top General in Kashmir, Gurmit Singh said this year has witnessed escalated encounters with anti-India rebels with 11 killed in the first two months so far compared to none in the corresponding period in 2013.

The Indian government and army have recently expressed concerns for possible escalation in rebel activity in the disputed region, which is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, ahead of the general elections due in India by May.

They have also expressed fears that battle hardened fighters from Afghanistan might turn to Kashmir once again after the thinning out of US troops from that country.