Militants storm army base in Kashmir

Armed militants stormed a major Indian army base near the frontier with Pakistan early yesterday, killing three soldiers, as tensions between the two neighbours ran high after weeks of cross-border firing.

Police said four militants had also been killed in a stand-off with security forces inside the command centre in northern Jammu and Kashmir state that lasted most of the day.

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It was the most audacious attack on an Indian military base since September, when 19 soldiers were killed in an assault that India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

"All the four militants have been killed. Three soldiers including a major died in the firefight," a senior police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Now the search operation is going on inside the premises," they added. The base is one of four command centres in the restive region and home to over 1,000 officers.

The attack came as Pakistan's hugely popular military chief General Raheel Sharif handed over to his successor yesterday with a warning to India not to mistake his country's "restraint" for weakness.

"Unfortunately, in recent months, increasing state terrorism in (Indian) occupied Kashmir, and India's aggressive steps have put the region's peace in danger," Sharif said at a colourful ceremony welcoming the incoming chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at a stadium at army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

"I want to make it clear to India that considering our policy of restraint a weakness would be dangerous for her," he said to applause.

"This is reality, that in South Asia, lasting peace and progress is impossible without solution of the Kashmir issue. For that, international community's special attention is necessary," he continued.

The attack also comes days before a scheduled visit to India by Pakistan's foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz for a weekend conference on Afghanistan.

"It clearly suggests there is an attempt by certain groups to sabotage the apparent peace outreach by Pakistan's government," said Mohan Guruswamy, head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives think-tank in New Delhi.

India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of sponsoring militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which it blames for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

Separately, Indian authorities said three militants were killed in a shoot-out with security forces after crossing into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have escalated since the September 18 attack on an Indian army base, the deadliest in a decade.

India said after that attack it had launched "surgical strikes" on militant bases across the heavily militarised de-facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC) in disputed Kashmir, a claim Islamabad has denied.

India and Pakistan both claim the region in full and their troops regularly exchange fire across the LoC, but they rarely send ground troops over the line.