Nine die in Kashmir camp attack

Indian police lay a wreath to a dead colleague

Nine Indian policemen have been killed in an attack by suspected militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Nine police officers were also injured after an overnight gun battle with the militants.

The attack came as India and Pakistan were due to start talks on the disputed territory in Delhi.

Senior defence officials from both sides will discuss reducing troops in the Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield.

Cordon

Two militants stormed the camp of India's Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) in an upmarket area of the state's summer capital, Srinagar, late on Wednesday evening.

"They lobbed grenades and fired with automatic weapons. It was a suicide attack," a police officer told the Reuters news agency.

It was a horrifying experience all through the night Shashi Nayak, cook Siachen talks start

India's paramilitary border guards threw a cordon around the camp and exchanged intermittent fire with the holed-up militants throughout the night, the BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar reports.

Gopal Sharma, Jammu and Kashmir's police chief, said: "[Militants] are trying to step up violence before Independence Day (on 15 August)."

Group's claim

Srinagar resident, Shashi Nayak, a cook, told the AFP agency: "It was a horrifying experience all through the night."

He was rescued along with a colleague in the morning.

"The two of us bolted the door from the inside. [The attacker] continued to fire at the door but couldn't open it," he said.

Another resident, Shakeela Akhtar, a mother of three children, said: "The entire family huddled together in one room praying throughout the night for safety."

The militant group, al-Mansurain, said it carried out the attack, reports say.

One militant was killed in the exchange while the fate of the other remains unknown.

The latest attack happened as Indian and Pakistani officials prepared to talk in Delhi on improving relations between the two countries, which have been bedevilled by their dispute over Kashmir.

The two countries' defence secretaries are attending what are the first talks at this level for seven years.

However, militant groups say that any dialogue on Kashmir will be futile unless Kashmiri representatives are also involved.

Militant separatists have been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir - which both Pakistan and India claim - since 1989.

Some 40,000 people have been killed since then.

But violence has decreased in Kashmir since a ceasefire between India and Pakistan last November.

The two nuclear neighbours have been holding peace talks since January this year.