SRINAGAR, June 21 (1998):At least five pro-government militants were killed on Sunday when suspected separatist guerrillas detonated a landmine in India’s restive state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

“A mine planted by militants on Sumbal road went off when a Gypsy carrying eight Ikhwan activists passed that way. Five out of eight died on the spot and the remaining three sustained serious injuries,” a police spokesman said.

Sumbal township lies 32 km (20 miles) north of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pro-government militia groups are helping Indian paramilitary forces to combat separatist militant groups fighting New Delhi’s rule in the northern state, India’s only Moslem-majority state.

Another landmine was defused by Indian security forces near Nowshera village of Baramulla, 54 km (34 miles) north of Srinagar.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.

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