Indian army chief says no village occupied by Pakistani troops on Kashmir LoC

Indian army chief General Bikram Singh Friday denied reports that a village near line-of-control (LoC) in Indian-controlled Kashmir has been occupied by militants or Pakistani troops. "They have been stopped, prevented. They have been neutralized (some of them) and operations are on to flush them out," Singh told media in New Delhi. "No village has been occupied. Nothing like that. The core commander has clarified that." A fierce gunfight is going on between Indian army and militants since Sept. 24 in Keran sector of frontier Kupwara district, around 135 km northwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. Indian army have reportedly pressed in choppers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to take on the infiltrators. Earlier this week, media reports said Pakistani troops have occupied village Shala Bhata near LoC in Kupwara. However, the army denied the reports, saying they are fighting a group of 30-40 infiltrators in the area. The General officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lt. Gen. Gurmeet Singh on Wednesday said 12 infiltrators were killed and five Indian troopers were wounded in the standoff. Indian media compared the ongoing clashes in Keran to the " Kargil War" -- a brief war between India and Pakistan in 1999 on LoC Kargil in the region's Ladakh province. India had to fight Pakistani troops to recapture its posts in the hilly terrain of Kargil. "We are dominating from all sides. The terrain is very difficult, treacherous and they (militants) are stuck in that," said the army chief. "We will get them out. It's a question of time." Pakistan meanwhile has denied India's accusation that its troops were involved in massive infiltration as "baseless" and described it "a blatant lie." The LoC is a de facto border dividing Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani controlled parts. Kashmir, a Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from British, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. Bilateral relations between the two nuclear neighbors have been strained over recent clashes on LoC in the disputed region. The fresh confrontation comes days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif agreed in a meeting in New York to reduce tension along the LoC in Kashmir as the first step towards a comprehensive peace in the restive region.