SRINAGAR, 4 October 2007 — Two Indian soldiers and nine militants were killed in a gunbattle outside Kashmir’s main city, the first major clash in the troubled Himalayan region in almost two months, officials said yesterday.

The fighting broke out in Tangmarg, a forested area west of Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar and close to the heavily-militarized border with Pakistan.

“The 30-hour long gunbattle has ended. Two army majors and nine militants have died,” police officer Imtiaz Ahmed told AFP by telephone from the area.

Four soldiers and a major were also hurt in the battle, one of the fiercest in Kashmir in recent months. Reinforcements have been sent.

“We are trying to ascertain the identity of the slain militants,” the police official said, adding that the group had recently infiltrated into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani zone of the disputed region.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. A.K. Mathur said in Srinagar at least five suspected militants were holed up in the village and the gunbattle ended in the afternoon.

The army had cordoned off the village following a tip that rebels were in the area when troops came under attack, he said. “Maj. K.P. Vinay died on the spot while six others including another major, four soldiers and a village headman identified as Rafiq Khatana were critically wounded,” another senior police officer said.

The injured soldiers were evacuated in a helicopter to Srinagar’s army hospital where Maj. Raman later died.

Police said that they recovered the bodies of nine suspected militants after the gunbattle ended.

No civilians were killed in the firing even though eight houses were damaged, Viplav Kumar, a senior superintendent of police said.

While firefights and short skirmishes between militants and government troops are fairly routine in the beleaguered Himalayan region, long-drawn firefights have been increasingly rare in the last several months. The last such gunbattle took place in early August where the Indian Army said they killed eight suspected Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militants and lost a colonel and a soldier.

There was neither independent verification of the clash nor confirmation of it from the dozen or so militant groups fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan region.

The militants have been fighting since 1989 to win Kashmir’s independence or see the Himalayan region merged with neighboring Pakistan’s territory.