Four Muslim separatist rebels and an Indian army soldier were killed today in two encounters in restive Kashmir.
The Indian army, backed by counter-insurgency police, shot dead three Muslim militants in the village of Doraswani in the northern Kashmir district of Kupwara, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Police said a policeman was injured in the fighting that started after troops beseiged the village on a tip-off.
In another encounter in the central Kashmir district of Budgam a militant and a soldier were killed.
The second encounter also erupted after troops sealed off a village near Berwa township, 35 kilometres west of Srinagar, the state's summer capital.
More than 36,500 people have died in Kashmir since the eruption of armed insurgency in the region in 1989.
AFP