Seventy-five people, including 60 suspected militants, have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir since New Delhi scrapped its six-month ceasefire in the region, police said Thursday.
The Indian government lifted its suspension of combat operations against Islamic separatists in the region on May 23. At the same time it invited Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf for talks in New Delhi.
During the ceasefire, police said 1049 people were killed in Kashmir, including 425 Muslim separatist militants, 220 security personnel and 404 civilians.
Since the end of the ceasefire, most of those killed were foreign Islamic guerrillas, who were shot in different areas of the Jammu region since June 1, Jammu and Kashmir police chief Ashok Suri said.
He denied that security forces had launched any fresh initiatives against the guerrillas.
"The assault against militants hiding in the hills will continue as was the practice in the past," he said.
Another senior police official said: "The success achieved by the security forces this summer is due to coordination between them and the local population who have informed on militants in their areas."
A senior army officer said that while they had been successful in the drive against militants in the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, they were still hoping for a similar breakthrough in the jungles of Kupwara and Baramulla in northern Kashmir.
Meanwhile a spokesman for India's paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) said Thursday its personnel had shot dead a Muslim guerrilla, believed to be the commander of a militant suicide-squad.
"Asif, said to be the commander of Lashkar's fidayeen (suicide) squad died in a chance encounter late Wednesday evening," the BSF spokesman said, adding it was a "major achievement".
In another incident, four policemen and one civilian were injured when suspected militants attacked a police station with grenades in the Shaheed Gunj area of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar Wednesday night, police said -- SRINAGAR, India (AFP)
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