India says Pakistan helped Kashmir rebels

SRINAGAR, India — Pakistani troops helped 31 Islamic militants infiltrate the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir in recent weeks, the Indian army said Saturday.

“The armed forces across (the border) have been giving them full support,” Brig. Gurmit Singh told reporters in Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir.

The army presented a man they identified as one of the infiltrators at a news conference.

The man said he was a Pakistani named Syed Moinullah Shah and was part of a group of 120 people who entered Indian Kashmir earlier this month.

He said 31 members of the group were rebels and the rest were their guides and porters. The men belonged to several separatist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahedeen, he said.

There was no way to independently verify the army’s allegations.

Pakistan’s army said it had not heard of the Indian army claims through official channels and could not comment on media reports.

India frequently accuses Pakistan of funding and training militants in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir and then facilitating their infiltration into Indian-held Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge, saying it only gives moral and diplomatic support to the rebels.

Singh said information provided by Shah had allowed the Indian army to seize a large cache of arms and ammunition.

He said eight members of Shah’s group had been killed in an avalanche and Indian security forces would hunt for the remainder soon. He gave no other details.

Both India and Pakistan claim the Himalayan region of Kashmir in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it. More than a dozen guerrilla groups are fighting for Indian-administered Kashmir’s independence or its unification with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the violence began in 1989.