India considers military action against Pakistan

NEW DELHI, India -- Fierce gunfire across the India-Pakistan border and attacks by militants killed at least 15 people in disputed Kashmir over the weekend, as India considered on Sunday whether to take further military action against its rival.

The most intense cross-border firing this year came after India on Saturday ordered the expulsion of Pakistan's ambassador to protest an earlier attack by suspected Islamic militants. India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring the militants, who are battling its forces in Kashmir.

Pakistan denies arming and training the militants, and has cracked down on them since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf threw his support behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Pakistan does say, however, that it supports the goal of independence for the only Muslim-majority state in predominantly Hindu India.

On Sunday, suspected Islamic guerrillas fired at an Indian army-paramilitary camp about 95 miles north of Jammu, the winter capital of India's northern Jammu-Kashmir state, killing four soldiers and wounding 12, state police spokesman Subhash Raina said. One of the attackers was killed, he said.

Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh called it a "terrorist attack."

Indian army officials said small-arms fire across the border was relentless Sunday, and that both sides exchanged heavy mortar fire overnight, forcing thousands of villagers to flee their homes. Migrant camps southwest of Jammu have swollen, they said.

Three Indian civilians were killed Saturday, the officials said.

In Islamabad, Pakistani Information Minister Nisar Memon said that "unprovoked" Indian shelling had killed seven Pakistanis and wounded 41 since Saturday.

The United States and other countries have voiced concerns that a fourth war could break out between the rivals. Two of the wars were fought over divided Kashmir, which they both claim.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca visited both countries last week, urging restraint and the resumption of dialogue.

On Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met with opposition leader Sonia Gandhi amid growing political support for a military strike against Pakistan. He huddled into the night with his key ministers and three military chiefs to map out India's next move.

Vajpayee's Cabinet Committee on Security announced it would place paramilitary forces guarding the border under the command of the army, and the coast guard under command of the navy. Foreign Minister Singh said the changes would better unify India's border security forces.

On Saturday, New Delhi expelled Pakistan's ambassador to India, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, and gave him one week to head home. Qazi said his ouster would only exacerbate tensions and denied Pakistan was behind Tuesday's militant attack, which provoked his expulsion.

Many ruling coalition and opposition lawmakers have demanded an attack on Pakistan, blaming it for violence in Kashmir, where tens of thousands of people have been killed since Islamic militants began fighting against Indian rule in 1989.

Memon, Pakistan's information minister, said India was deliberately targeting civilians in the weekend firing and accused it of trying to "defame" Pakistan because New Delhi is unhappy with the praise Islamabad has received for its role in the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism.

"In the past, India did its best to isolate us from the international community, but they failed," Memon said. "Pakistan is not involved in any acts of terrorism and India will never be able to declare us a terrorist state."

Meanwhile, suspected Islamic militants blew up an Indian paramilitary truck, injuring four Border Security Force soldiers, two of them critically. The explosive device was planted along a road near Udhampur, 60 miles north of Jammu.

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan on Sunday called on India to withdraw its troops from the border and repeated Islamabad's request for renewed dialogue.

"We want to resolve all disputes with New Delhi through talks and negotiations. We want de-escalation of tensions," Khan told The Associated Press in Islamabad.

Vajpayee is scheduled to travel to Jammu-Kashmir next week with senior Cabinet ministers.

After a militant attack in December on the Parliament in New Delhi, India withdrew its envoy from Islamabad and the two countries slashed their diplomatic staffs, halted air and train services between them and deployed about 1 million soldiers along their frontier.

India and Pakistan routinely fire at each other across the frontier, but Indian analysts say the current crisis is the worst since an 11-week border conflict in Kashmir in 1999, which nearly escalated into war.