India expels Pakistani envoy

India has announced that it is expelling the Pakistani High Commissioner, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, from the country.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh disclosed the decision after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security - India's highest body that considers national security affairs.

The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, had been considering how Delhi should respond to a militant attack on an Indian garrison near Jammu on Tuesday.

More than 30 people, including soldiers and civilians, many of them women and children, were killed in the attack.

The three militants themselves were shot dead by Indian soldiers in a fire-fight lasting several hours.

India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants engaged in a violent insurrection against Delhi's rule in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan condemned the attack, but said it supported the goals of separatists seeking to end Indian rule in Kashmir.

India withdrew its own High Commissioner from Islamabad after militants attacked the parliament building in Delhi last December.

Since then, both sides have deployed large military forces along their common border in combat positions.