NEW DELHI, 28 October — Defense Minister George Fernandes yesterday squarely charged Pakistan with offering covert support to activist groups which are spearheading a bloody campaign in Kashmir.

"There are scores of these training camps and there is no evidence that they have been shut down," he told the private Star TV network, dismissing reports that Islamabad had suspended its backing to such groups after the Sept. 11 attacks in the US.

Fernandes said Pakistan may have shifted some of the alleged training bases from one site to another to "demonstrate" its commitments to the US-led global coalition against terrorism. "I do not have any reason to believe that there is any reduction in their (Pakistan’s) efforts to train, equip and export militants to India," Fernandes said.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training activists in Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge. The defense minister in his interview to Star News also hinted that his Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in New Delhi was in the process of enforcing an effective plan to crush militancy in Kashmir.

"The only way to deal with militants is to get rid of them. We are working on a strategy that will enable us to be far more effective than we have been so far. "The aim is to clear the (Kashmir) Valley of any kind of terrorist activity," Fernandes said, without elaborating on the new security blueprint for Kashmir.

"The strategy will be far more effective than the present one," he warned.

In a separate meeting with reporters yesterday, Fernandes, however, said the security forces would not cross its de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir in pursuit of activists.

"We will not cross the line of control (LoC) in any case," Fernandes said in Pathankot. "If we did not do it during the Kargil conflict, it is now not a question," he said of the 1999 full-scale military conflict between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir.

The government is under pressure to send its troops across the militarized LoC and dismantle alleged camps in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

A week ago, Fernandes said India would be "ruthless" in tackling terrorism following the Oct. 1 bomb attack by activists at the Kashmir Assembly building. Fernandes also rejected allegations that an Indian artillery attack across the LoC on the eve of a visit to India and Pakistan by US Secretary of State Colin Powell Oct. 16 was an act of aggression.

"I have repeatedly said we have never committed aggression against any country," he said, adding the artillery barrage, the heaviest in eight months, was aimed at foiling Pakistan’s attempts to push activists into Kashmir.

"We have only acted in defense of our frontiers," Fernandes said of the military action on Oct. 15 — the day he took charge as defense minister.

Meanwhile, 20 people were killed yesterday and overnight in Kashmir, including four members of the same family gunned down by suspected activists, police here said.

A state police deputy superintendent died in a land mine blast yesterday in the southern Kashmiri district of Kathua, police officials said.

Activists overnight shot dead one Bashir Ahmad, his mother, his 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, police said.

In another incident, activists holed themselves up in a mosque yesterday and were engaged in a battle with security forces in the state, authorities said.

Yesterday marked "Black Day" for Kashmiri separatists, the 54th anniversary of the deployment of Indian troops in the Himalayan territory, bordering Pakistan.

At least four separatist leaders were arrested yesterday as much of the state observed a strike to protest the arrival of Indian troops 54 years ago.