Gunbattle kills 4 rebels, 3 Indian soldiers in Kashmir

A two-day gunbattle left four insurgents and three Indian soldiers dead close to a cease-fire line dividing troubled Kashmir between longtime rivals India and Pakistan, India’s army said Sunday.
Col. Rajesh Kalia, an army spokesman, said the Indian soldiers intercepted the rebels after they crossed over from the Pakistani side of Kashmir on Saturday and the fighting erupted.
Kalia said the gunfire ended on Sunday in Nowgam sector, nearly 140 kilometers (85 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir.
There was no independent confirmation of the gunbattle between the two sides.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989, a claim Islamabad denies. About 70,000 people have been killed in the armed uprising and ensuing Indian military crackdown.
Pakistan says it provides moral and diplomatic support to the rebels.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over control of Kashmir since they won independence from British colonialists in 1947.

Source: Arab News