Indian army kills five rebels in Kashmir clash

Indian security forces have shot dead five militants in a gun battle near the Pakistan border in Indian Kashmir, police said.

Indian security forces have shot dead five militants in a gun battle near the Pakistan border in Indian Kashmir, police said.

The Islamic rebels were killed late last night in the clash that broke out near the Line of Control, a military ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

The militants have vowed to sabotage the second stage of voting in state elections - to be held tomorrow in Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist revolt has raged since 1989.

The new violence north of Srinagar, the state's summer capital, came after security forces killed a suspected separatist earlier yesterday, ending a siege at a police camp.

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Two gunmen forced their way into the police camp on Saturday, killing a policeman and wounding eight others. A search was under way for the second gunman.

The base houses hundreds of police families, and the attack fanned fears of a repeat of a May raid on an army camp in which 34 died and brought India and Pakistan close to war.