Countries Clash Over Kashmir

India and Pakistan pounded the territory they both claim with mortar and artillery fire Saturday, terrorizing and killing civilians in Kashmir a day after giving up on peace talks.

Pakistani military sources said four Indian fighter planes briefly crossed into Pakistani air space Saturday. Indian Air Force spokesman R.K. Dhingra called the reports "false and baseless."

On both sides of the border, through the disputed region, thousands of civilians reportedly were fleeing their homes to escape shelling.

Four civilians were killed Saturday in India, Press Trust of India reported. It was unclear whether the fighting caused any deaths Saturday in Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif ended talks in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Friday, unwilling to soften their positions on Kashmir.

Both India and Pakistan claim all of Kashmir, which is divided between them. They have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory since both gained independence from Britain in 1947.

The meeting between Vajpayee and Sharif was the first since the two countries conducted nuclear tests in May. Officials said the two are likely to meet again in September in South Africa.

Majeed Malik, the Pakistan Cabinet minister in charge of Kashmir policy, said Indian troops killed 37 Pakistani soldiers and 43 civilians from Wednesday through Friday. Malik blamed India for the fighting,saying it was intended to derail the peace talks.

The Indian army did not comment on the Pakistani claim. It accused Islamabad's forces of killing 29 Indian soldiers and civilians in the battle that continued Saturday, United News of India said.

A military spokesman said the Indian dead included 16 civilians killed when Pakistani mortars slammed into a military hospital in the town of Tangdhar, 200 yards from the mountainous frontier and about 90 miles northwest of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-held Kashmir.

In a press statement Saturday, the Pakistani foreign ministry accused India of "unprovoked and indiscriminate firing" along the disputed border that undermined "the prospects for a resumption of meaningful talks between Pakistan and India."

Exchanges of mortar and gunfire are almost a daily occurrence, but casualties have been high in the past week. In September 1997, at least 39 people died in a similar outbreak of border tension.

Meanwhile, in their third major attack in a week in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, Muslim separatists killed four Hindus in a remote mountainous area, police said.

Few details were available about the attack late Friday night at Sildhar Dhok, about 124 miles from the state's winter capital of Jammu.

In two separate incidents earlier this week, gunmen stormed into houses in the region and sprayed the occupants with bullets, killing a total of 16 people and wounding five others.

By Neelesh Misra