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India accuses Pakistan of war through 'subversion'

SRINAGAR: Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Tuesday accused Pakistan of waging war against India through "terrorism and subversion".

"Having realised it is impossible to win against India in an open conventional military aggression, the enemy has changed his war strategy," a government statement quoted Advani as saying at a conference of heads of police organisations.

"Terrorism and subversion have become his preferred form of war against India," the minister said.

Advani's comments came on a day when India said that five civilians had been killed by Pakistani artillery fire across the line of control.

"In yet another shameless display of insensitivity to the lives of innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan army carried out heavy shelling in Tangdar on Monday," a defence statement said.

"Approximately 500 shells of artillery and mortar were fired by Pak troops killing five innocent civilians and injuring six."

Tangdar township lies near Line of Control in Kashmir's Kupwara district, 87 km (54 miles) northwest of Srinagar.

The defence statement said Pakistan had deliberately targeted Tangdar because people in the area do not support the "proxy war", a term India uses for its charge that Islamabad.

Advani said Pakistan's frustration had increased after fighting in Kargil

"...the humiliating defeat in Kargil has further increased Pakistan's frustration and desperation."

Violence in Kashmir has increased since the end of the military offensive in Kargil to evict heavily armed men who India said were Pakistani army regulars.

Islamabad denied the charge but agreed under international pressure to persuade the intruders to withdraw to its side of the military control line.

Police in Kashmir said they shot dead "an organiser" of a Pakistan-based mujahideen group, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, in a clash in in Srinagar on Tuesday.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba's suicide squad, Fidayen, has launched a series of attacks on Indian security camps killing many soldiers.-Reuters