Indian troops killed at least 34 separatists in Kashmir and exchanged fire with Pakistani soldiers as the neighbours held a summit to defuse tension over the disputed region, officials said today.
Police said 20 guerrillas were killed when they stormed a militants' training camp at Mandi, 256 km (160 miles) north of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state.
"This was a clean operation. Security forces didn't suffer any casualty. We expect more bodiesin the morning",Deputy Inspector-General of Police S.S. Bijral told Reuters in Jammu.
Police said the dead included militants from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Four militants were also killed in the Kupwara region in northern Kashmir, they said.
Officials in Srinagar said Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged fire at Arnia and Samba sectors in the Jammu region.
"Firing lasted for 155 minutes, there was no casualty", a police official told Reuters.
A pro-Pakistan guerrilla group said it had killed 11 Indian troops in two ambushes in Kashmir, but Indian police said there was only one ambush in which a soldier was injured.
Earlier today the Indian army said it had shot dead 10 separatist guerrillas in gunbattles since Saturday morning, nine in Kupwara and another in Baramulla district.
There has been no let-up in the violence in Kashmir since Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf arrived in New Delhi on Saturday for talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee aimed at easing hostilities between the two countries.
Yesterday, police reported 14 people, including a 10-year-old girl, had been killed across the region.
Indian security forces were placed on high alert in Kashmir at the start of the weekend after authorities said they were tipped off about a plan by guerrillas to sabotage the talks, the first between the two nuclear-capable countries in more than two years.
India controls 45 percent of Kashmir, Pakistan just over a third and China holds the rest.