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At least three Indian soldiers and two suspected Islamic militants have died in a major gun battle in restive Indian Kashmir, the army said Wednesday.
The announcement of the deaths came a day ahead of the first official talks between India and Pakistan since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The three soldiers, who included one officer, were killed in a firefight that began Tuesday in Sopore town, south of the Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar, and ended the next day.
Six soldiers were injured in the fighting along with a civilian who was caught in the crossfire, army spokesman Colonel J.S. Brar said.
Police said more militants might have died and that they were searching for bodies in the rubble of buildings destroyed in the battle.
The clash started after Indian troops surrounded two houses where heavily armed militants had been holed up.
A Muslim insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir has claimed at least 47,000 lives since 1989, according to official figures.
India accuses Pakistan of pushing militants across a heavily militarised frontier into its zone of the disputed Himalayan region.
Islamabad denies the charges.
The two nuclear-armed countries, which have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir, were due to resume talks on Thursday in New Delhi.
Pakistan's foreign secretary Salman Bashir arrived in the Indian capital on Wednesday, saying he was "hopeful of a positive outcome" from the discussions with his Indian counterpart.
Talks between the neighbours have been on hold since the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai that left 166 people dead.
New Delhi blamed the assault on Pakistan-based militant groups and "official agencies" of its neighbour.
India decided to resume talks after judging that Pakistan had taken some steps to address concerns about militant groups operating on its side of the border.
