Clashes go on after Kashmir quake
The Indian army says there has been no let-up in separatist violence in Kashmir despite the earthquake a week ago which killed about 38,000 people. The army has killed at least 29 militants in the past week, a military spokesman said. However, an umbrella body of groups fighting Indian rule in divided Kashmir says it has called a temporary halt.
India has about 500,000 troops in the part of Kashmir it administersIndia and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two wars over the region since independence. The Indian armys director general of military operations, Lt Gen Madan Gopal, said the quake had not affected "infiltration" from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control that divides Kashmir.
Gen Gopal said 16 of those killed were attempting to cross the Line of Control and eight of those only hours after the quake struck. On Saturday, there was a gun battle in the town of Kathua, 95km (60 miles) south of Indian-administered Kashmir winter capital, Jammu.
The Indian army said two soldiers were killed and six injured in an attack by militants who were later cornered in an abandoned house.
Bus delay
Indian-administered Kashmir has 35,000 quake homeless, Delhi saysThe army says it believes the quake caused substantial casualties among militant groups in the region. The worst hit were members of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba, it says.
The United Jihad Council (UJC), an umbrella outfit of separatist groups active in the Kashmir valley, says it has called for a temporary halt to operations. India has about 500,000 soldiers in the part of Kashmir it administers. Separatists have been fighting an insurgency there for 15 years.
Ties between India and Pakistan have improved in the past two years, allowing more contact across the Line of Control, including a key Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service that started in April. However, a trial run of a new bus service to link the cities of Amritsar and Lahore has been postponed following the earthquake.
There was criticism after Decembers Indian Ocean tsunami that India did not allow aid groups enough access to areas such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. But aid agencies say they are so far happy with the access Delhi has granted to the heavily militarised Kashmir region. Brian Heidel, the India head of British group Save the Children, said: So far we have been able to access all the areas that we have sought access to.
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