SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Indian troops shot dead 14 Islamic militants in clashes across Indian-administered Kashmir, while suspected rebels killed four civilians.
The death toll is the highest since the foreign ministers of nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan met for the first time in three years and pledged to take forward the fragile peace process.
The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the control of the region, which they hold in part but claim in full.
Five militants were killed when the army raided a suspected hideout in the southwestern Poonch district Saturday, a defence ministry spokesman said Saturday.
A police spokesman said six more rebels were shot dead in three gunbattles overnight in the northern Baramulla district, while another was killed Saturday near Qazigund, 80 kilometers (49 miles) south of the summer capital Srinagar.
Two more rebels were shot dead in the northern Kupwara district overnight and Saturday by Indian troops seeking hiding militants, police said.
Troops seized arms and ammunition after each of the clashes, the officials said.
Police said suspected rebels killed three Muslims and a Hindu in the southern districts of Poonch, Rajouri and Doda overnight and Saturday.
None of the dozen rebel groups fighting against India claimed responsibility for the four dead civilians.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Indian Kashmir since the eruption of an anti-Indian insurgency in the scenic Himalayan region in 1989.