SRINAGAR, Feb 5 (2004) – Ten Muslim guerrillas and an Indian soldier were killed in a gun battle in Kashmir on Thursday, an army spokesman said, the highest toll in a shootout in the disputed region in months.
“The army, after a tip-off, launched an operation in the Kupwara forests and shot dead 10 terrorists. One soldier also lost his life in the firefight,” spokesman Colonel Dharam Adhikari told Reuters.
He said the 11-hour gun battle took place in the Kandi area of Kupwara district, northwest of Srinagar. Separatist violence has continued in the troubled region despite recent peace moves between India and Pakistan, which went to the brink of war over Kashmir in mid-2002.
