Pakistan hands over bodies of six soldiers

The mutilated and disfigured bodies of six Indian soldiers were yesterday handed over by neighbouring Pakistan in northern Kashmir state, where India has been fighting hundreds of armed intruders occupying its territory for over a month.

This brings to 72 the number of Indian soldiers killed in the conflict raging across Kashmir's icy, mountainous ridges in the Kargil region against what India claims is a mixture of Pakistani soldiers and trained Islamic insurgents. Pakistan denies these allegations. The six soldiers, including Lieut Saurav Kalia, were reportedly tortured after being captured by the intruders following a fire fight in the Kargil area on May 14th.

Reports from Kargil, quoting army officials said the soldiers' eyes had been gouged out, their genitals sliced off and their bodies covered with cigarette burns. Eight other soldiers who were part of their patrol are still missing. "It's an outrageous act violating all international conventions," said the army spokesman, Col Vikram Singh, in Delhi yesterday. "We would not like to give voice to our anger till the post-mortem has been carried out."

India claimed last week that an air force officer whose fighter was shot down was shot at point-blank range after landing safely on Pakistani territory.

A foreign office spokesman said the soldiers' mutilated bodies would cause "outrage and sadness" but refused to speculate on whether they would damage peace talks between Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Mr Sartaj Azaz, and his counterpart, Mr Jaswant Singh, in New Delhi tomorrow.

"We are waiting for the post-mortem report before proceeding further," the spokesman, Mr Raminder Jassal, said. He said India would consider lodging a protest with Pakistan after the post-mortem. Meanwhile, aerial strikes against the militants were called off due to cloudy weather yesterday. But military officials claimed the army was "inching forward", pushing the intruders back from several strategic hill features they occupied, aided by artillery fire. The bitter fighting included hand-to-hand combat at heights above 15,000 feet in rarefied conditions where all physical exertion requires a Herculean effort. "We are determined to vacate the armed intrusion," said Col Singh. India also claimed it was well prepared for the reported "diabolical" design by Pakistan's Special Services Group, a commando unit specially trained for high-altitude warfare, to launch an airborne assault in Kashmir ahead of the Mr Azaz's visit.

Reuters adds: The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, said yesterday G8 foreign ministers had discussed the Indo-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir and were deeply concerned about the conflict, especially because of the two countries' nuclear capabilities.