Gunfire persists between Muslim militants and India

THE FIERCE firefight between a band of Muslim militants, hiding in a thickly forested mountainous region in India's northern …

THE FIERCE firefight between a band of Muslim militants, hiding in a thickly forested mountainous region in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir province, and military personnel has entered its eighth day, the longest such engagement in the war-torn region, reports Rahul Bediin New Delhi.

Firing between the two sides continued yesterday in the Mendhar area of the Poonch district, 250km from the state's winter capital Jammu. Poor weather conditions and difficult terrain were hindering operations, officials said.

Local army commander Brig Gurdeep Singh said some 350 soldiers had, since last Thursday, encircled an unknown number of militants hiding in the jungle and caves in the area.

In an endeavour to minimise casualties, they were trying to "wear them down".

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"It is not possible to tell how long it will take to conclude the operation," Brig Singh said.

Seven people, including four militants and three security personnel, died in the first two days of fighting.

The area where the stand-off is taking place is a well-trodden infiltration route used by Muslim militants crossing into Indian-administered Kashmir from neighbouring Pakistan. They are fuelling the insurgency raging in the disputed province since 1989, in which more than 70,000 have died.

Security officials said the warring militants belonged to two Pakistan-based Islamist groups: Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad) and the Lashkar-i- Taiba ( LiT or Army of the Pure).

India claims the 10 gunmen who besieged its financial capital Mumbai last November killing 164 were also from the LiT. Pakistan is unwilling to admit this despite evidence presented to it by New Delhi earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has sacked its national security adviser for speaking out of turn to the Indian media on the Mumbai strikes without consulting prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Retired Maj Gen Mahmood Ali Durrani, a former ambassador to the US, was fired on Wednesday evening after Indian news channels quoted him as saying the lone surviving Mumbai attacker, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who in police custody, was Pakistani.

However, other Pakistani officials, including information minister Sherry Rehman, soon corroborated Maj Gen Duranni's statement, confirming Kasab's nationality.

The admission Kasab was Pakistani followed weeks of denial by the government in Islamabad, which reiterated the young man, reportedly from the eastern Punjab province, was not registered in its national identification database.

India now wants Islamabad to concede the other nine terrorists who attacked Mumbai with Kabab, but who died in firefights lasting nearly 60 hours, also were Pakistani.

Earlier this week, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and federal home minister P Chidambaram for the first time accused the Pakistani authorities of involvement in Mumbai's siege, an assertion Islamabad dismisses.