KARGIL, May 31 (1999): India Monday accepted an offer of peace talks with Pakistan over Kashmir, while warning of a "war-like" situation in the Himalayan state and stepping up air strikes. New Delhi deployed Mirage 2000 jets in continuing air strikes on Pakistan-backed Islamic guerrillas in a bid to jam Pakistani radar and staged artillery assaults on militant strongholds, military sources said. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee accused Islamabad of launching an undeclared invasion of Indian Kashmir, as...

SRINAGAR, May 31 (1999): India launched a sixth day of attacks on Monday against what it said were Pakistan-backed intruders on its side of the line dividing Kashmir. Indian jets strafed the hillside positions and moved more troops in to bolster Delhi's offensive in the disputed territory. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said the situation was "war-like" and accused India's arch-foe Pakistan of pushing forward the ceasefire line. But his government accepted an offer of talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister...

ISLAMABAD, May 30 (1999): At least five people were killed, seven injured and scores of houses damaged Sunday when Indian forces heavily shelled border villages in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, officials said. They said the Indian troops resorted to "unprovoked heavy shelling" in the Bhimber sector of the Line of Control, which divides the Pakistani and Indian zones. "The Pakistani army is giving an appropriate response to the Indian firing which started in the morning and was still continuing late into the evening,"...

KARGIL, May 30 (1999): Indian ground forces battled hand- to-hand with rebels in Kashmir as operations against the insurgents continued and fought another artillery duel with rival Pakistan across the border. Officials, meanwhile, said India was studying a planned visit to New Delhi by the Pakistani foreign minister for peace talks on Kashmir, the subject of two wars since 1947 between the now nuclear- armed rivals. The air force continued limited air raids on the guerrillas following the latest ground attacks and...

SRINAGAR, May 30 (1999): Defence Minister George Fernandes on Sunday toured Kashmir's tense border as Indian and Pakistani troops continued their artillery duels, military officials said. Fernandes, who arrived in this summer capital of Kashmir Saturday, was expected to visit the border areas of Kargil and Drass. He is due to return to Srinagar to pay homage to an Indian air force pilot who was killed after being shot down by Pakistani forces in Kashmir region Thursday. Indian officials said the pilot, Ajay Ahuja,...

NEW DELHI, May 30 (1999):The main airport in India's Kashmir state reopened for civilian traffic Sunday after a four-day closure to facilitate aerial strikes on Islamic guerrillas, officials here said. Air vice marshal S.K. Malik said the airport at Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, received an Indian Airlines Airbus from New Delhi after it resumed operations. The Srinagar airport was taken over by the Indian Air Force on Wednesday as New Delhi launched fierce air strikes on Moslem militants occupying key hills on...

SRINAGAR, May 30 (1999): Four Indian security personnel were killed Sunday when their vehicle ran over a land mine in the state of Kashmir, officials said. The explosion occurred on a highway at Banihal 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital. The men belonged to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, a paramilitary unit that is normally deployed on India's mountainous border with China. Kashmir borders both Pakistan and China. No further details of the blast were available. No one claimed...

KABUL, May 30 (1999): Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement said on Sunday there was a possibility of U.S. involvement behind the increased tension between Pakistan and India. "Another probability which observers point at is that the U.S. in Asia does not accept any other atomic power apart from herself and Israel...and it is possible that it may have covertly promised aid to India's government or army to fight against Pakistan," the official Shariat Weekly said in an editorial. It was the first reaction from Kabul...

NEW DELHI, May 29 (1999): India said on Saturday its forces had pushed back infiltrators in one sector on its side of a ceasefire line in Kashmir, and recaptured "substantial" ground while inflicting about 400 casualties. "We have actually recaptured a substantial portion of those areas which they (infiltrators) had come into," Parliamentary Affairs Minister R. Kumaramangalam told reporters after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and senior aides briefed leaders of opposition groups on India's ground and air offensive...

NEW DELHI, May 29 (1999): Indian troops, backed by warplanes, made major gains on Saturday against guerrilla positions close to the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, the army said. But diplomatic moves were afoot to calm the crisis, in which fighting over strategic mountain peaks near the Line of Control dividing Kashmir has raised tension between South Asia's nuclear rivals to its highest pitch in three decades. Pakistan said it planned to send Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz to New Delhi next week for talks to ease...