Agence France Presse

Srinagar, July 25:

Indian troops shot dead five armed infiltrators crossing the de facto Kashmir border from Pakistan, the army said today. Soldiers launched an operation last night after the suspected Islamist gunmen were spotted in the mountainous Machil area in the north of Indian controlled Kashmir. Five AK-47 rifles, two grenade launchers, 70 grenades, two radio sets and a large quantity of ammunition were recovered from the bodies, an army spokesman said. India’s new army chief in Kashmir says the Pakistani army knows that militants are crossing from Pakistani Kashmir to the Indian zone to join an insurgency against New Delhi’s rule. Meanwhile, a report from Srinagar said the chief minister of Kashmir today ordered a inquiry into the killing of three teenagers by soldiers who mistook them for Islamic militants as protests were staged for a second day. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in a statement announcing the inquiry, urged troops and police fighting a 15-year insurgency to avoid “such occurrences in the future at any cost.”