Fourteen die in Kashmir clashes

Eleven rebels and three Indian soldiers were killed in several attacks in Kashmir yesterday, including a grenade assault in Srinagar during a visit by India's home minister, officials said.

Two soldiers were killed and one injured when suspected militants threw a grenade in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, shortly after Home Minister Shivraj Patil gave a news conference there at the start of a three-day visit. It is his first trip to India's only Muslim-majority state since a new Congress-led government took power in Delhi in May, but a meeting with leaders of Kashmir's separatist movement looked unlikely.

"We have not received any invitation from Mr Patil for a meeting so far," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, leader of the moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of separatist groups, told Reuters.

Patil told a news conference he was willing to talk to anyone "if bloodshed stops, but a dialogue requires two groups". He said he would have no objection to separatist leaders visiting Pakistan - even though most of them either have no passports or have had their passports impounded by India.

Ten militants were killed in three clashes in the western districts of Poonch and Baramulla yesterday, some while trying to cross from Pakistani Kashmir, security forces said.

A rebel and a soldier were also killed when militants staged an early morning attack on a military camp in the town of Sopore, north of Srinagar.