Indian troops killed two militants in a hotel in Kashmir's main city today after a night-long gunbattle that coincided with the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Three other people including a former state legislator, died in the shootout, three miles from the building in the summer capital of Srinagar where Mr Vajpayee and state chief ministers were holding a meeting meant to highlight a return to normalcy in Indian Kashmir.
Police said the body of a militant belonging to the Pakistan-based guerrilla group Lashkar-e-Taiba was found in the hotel. Police said overnight there were two gunmen and they were looking for the body of the second.
Lashkar was linked by police to two car blasts in Bombay on Monday in which 51 people died.
Suspected militants also hurled a grenade at an Indian army patrol in southern Kashmir this morning, killing a passerby and wounding three other civilians.
Despite the attacks in Bombay and Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani experts went ahead with a second day of talks in Islamabad on resuming air links.
Air links were broken after a December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based groups. Though Pakistan denied involvement, the parliament attack brought the nuclear-armed neighbours close to war.
The two countries have however moved this year to restore diplomatic links and bus services in a gradual thaw which began when Mr Vajpayee, during his last visit to Kashmir in April, said he wanted to offer a hand of friendship to Pakistan.
