Rebels call truce in quake-hit Kashmir

Kashmir's main rebel alliance, the United Jihad Council, faxed a statement to the local Kashmir News Service saying militant operations were on hold in regions affected by Saturday's devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake.

It said that Syed Salahudin, chief of the region's most powerful rebel group, the Hizbul Mujahedin, "has directed its cadres to halt their operations in the affected areas."

There was no immediate formal response from the Indian army, which continued its operations in the Indian sector of Kashmir, the disputed and divided Himalayan region that is also partly held by Pakistan.

The militants have in the past suspended military action when such calamities struck the region, including earlier this year when more than 300 people were killed in snow avalanches.

Amid the announcement of a truce, Indian police said suspected militants had killed 11 people late Sunday and early Monday, most of them Hindus -- the majority population in India but the minority in Indian-held Kashmir.

Meanwhile Indian army Colonel Hemant Juneja said eight rebels were killed by troops late Sunday in Kashmir's northern Gulmarg sector after they refused to surrender.

The army said it was setting up field hospitals as well as supplying food and shelter for the worst hit areas of remote mountain villages in northern Baramulla and Kupwara districts.

In the town of Uri more than 300 people were killed, and hundreds faced freezing temperatures at night in makeshift tents.