2 killed, 20 held in Kashmir

Kashmir's police chief Gopal Sharma said the two slain Pakistanis and the arrested men were linked to a group of four people gunned down in India's western state of Gujarat earlier this month whom police had claimed were members of the hardline militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"The militants were planning a fidayeen (suicide) attack on the Bombay stock exchange," Sharma said, adding that the killings and arrests had broken the back of a Lashkar network which had been operating in the Kashmiri summer capital, Srinagar, for the past two years.

He claimed the network had been working under two Pakistani commanders -- Shahid Ahmed and Zahid Hafiz -- and had been involved in planning suicide attacks, explosions and killings.

Sharma said both Ahmed and Hafiz, who had been picked up by the security forces in the past day or two, were killed early Tuesday when they tried to escape as police were escorting them to their hideout to make more arrests.

"The police party was attacked by militants and the two tried to escape, taking advantage of firing. In the police action both got killed," said Sharma, adding that five security force personnel were injured.