The Pakistan-based militant group blamed for the Mumbai attacks threatened today more violence in disputed Indian Kashmir after a five-day gunbattle with troops that killed 25 people.
"The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) will continue to render sacrifices for the freedom of Kashmir and coming days would prove costly for Indian forces," Abdullah Gaznavi, the spokesman for the group, said by telephone.
Indian soldiers shot dead 17 militants and eight troops were killed in the gunbattle that began last Friday in Shamsbari forest near the Line of Control, a ceasefire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, officials said.
An LeT spokesman said the group, established in the 1990s to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, had laid an ambush for Indian soldiers who were patrolling in the area. "India should understand the freedom struggle in Kashmir was not over, it is active with full force," Gaznavi said from an undisclosed location.
"The gun battle should be an eye opener for New Delhi."
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in parts and have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region.
India has blamed the LeT and other Pakistan-based militant groups for last November's Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed. Pakistan denies any state agencies were involved.
India also accuses Pakistan of arming, training and sending militants to its part of Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies.
India was forced to send more troops to the Shamsbari forest area to end the firefight against the heavily armed militants.
"The gun battle is over and search operations are going on in the dense forests," army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel J. S. Brar said today.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since a revolt against Indian rule broke out in Kashmir in 1989.
Officials say violence has declined in Kashmir since the two south Asian neighbours began a slow-moving peace process in 2004.
New Delhi paused that dialogue after the Mumbai attacks.
Reuters