SRINAGAR, March 5: Indian troops shot dead 10 Mujahideen overnight in separate gun battles in occupied Kashmir, an army spokesman said.

Four Kashmiris were shot dead in Botnar village near the southern town of Tral, some 40 kilometres south of Srinagar, the spokesman said.

"The four were sighted inside a mountain cave in the snow-bound Botnar village," he said adding a gun battle erupted as Indian troops closed in. "We killed all the four," he said.

In Anantnag district Indian troops, backed by police and paramilitary soldiers, shot dead three more Mujahideen in another encounter, the spokesman said.

In a third operation, three freedom fighters were killed near the highway town of Banihal, 110 kilometres south of Srinagar, an army source said.

Indian troops resumed their counter-insurgency operations this week after winding up relief and rescue work in three districts of Kashmir, devastated by avalanches triggered by record levels of snowfall.

Meanwhile Indian army experts began removing landmines from occupied Kashmir on Saturday near disputed border with Pakistan, ahead of next month's first bus service.

Indian military authorities said they would be able to clear the mines before the start of the bus service on April 7.

"The army has commenced the process of de-mining the stretch close to the Line of Control to facilitate the timely opening of the Srinagar - Muzaffarabad highway," a defence ministry statement said.-AFP/Reuters