The Indian army said Sunday it foiled two separate bids by rebels to sneak from Pakistan into India's portion of Kashmir in gunfights that left eight insurgents and three soldiers dead. At least three insurgents and one soldier were killed in a firefight sparked by a group of guerrillas trying to infiltrate Indian territory on Saturday night near the Saujian sector, said Lt. Col. R.K. Chhiber. The bid by the militants in Saujian, about 150 kilometers (95 miles) southwest of Srinagar, came hours after the army reported a similar encounter in another part of the divided Himalayan region. The other gunbattle in Gurez sector occurred after an army patrol spotted a group of militants near the cease-fire line that splits Kashmir between India and Pakistan. When the soldiers challenged the militants, they opened fire, setting off a gunfight that lasted several hours, said army spokesman Lt. Col. A.K. Mathur. Three militants were reported killed Saturday, but as security forces combed the area through the night they found the bodies of two more militants and two soldiers, Mathur said Sunday. Security forces were still searching the area, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. Neither of the reports could be independently verified, the Associated Press reported.
