14 killed, separatists arrested in Kashmir

Two militants and an Indian soldier were killed overnight in a fierce six-hour gun battle near the town of Kulgam, 70km south of the summer capital Srinagar, a police spokesman said.

"The fighting erupted during a search out operation by the Indian army," he said, identifying one of the slain militants as Ansar Khan, alias Talibani.

Khan was commander of the hardline Islamic group Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami in southern Anantnag district, of which Kulgam is part.

Four civilians and a soldier were injured in the clash.

Near the same town, suspected rebels shot dead a civilian overnight, police said, while in another incident, suspected militants killed a colleague who had surrendered to the Indian army by slitting his throat in northern Baramulla district.

Meanwhile, Indian troops shot dead a militant along the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan late Sunday in Sunderbani, nearly 400km south of Srinagar, police said.

An Indian soldier lost his footing during the operation and died after he slipped into a fast flowing river.

Four more rebels were killed in southern Doda district and Anantnag by troops during two "cordon and search" operations, a police spokesman said.

In other violence, a militant was gunned down by India's security forces while a civilian woman was killed by militants in separate incidents in southern Rajouri district, police said.

Police said suspected rebels killed another civilian in northern Kupwara district overnight.

Kashmir is in the grip of a 15-year-old insurgency against Indian-rule that has left more than 40,000 people dead by official count. Separatists put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000.

Meanwhile, police in the summer capital Srinagar detained some 15 hardline separatists, among them human rights activist Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, while they were staging a hunger strike in a tent to protest alleged human rights violations by Indian troops.