rediff.com: Army launches major offensive in J&K: AFP

The Indian Army launched a major offensive Thursday against rebel hideouts in southern Kashmir, where militants killed nearly 100 people in a series of massacres the day before, military commanders said in Jammu.

The Indian Air Force also deployed planes to help the sweeping military campaign on the higher reaches of southern Kashmir, officials said.

Air Force sources said Russian-designed helicopter gunships were being used for "casualty vacations, re-induction and re-location of ground forces" in the rugged mountain districts of Doda and Banihal.

"So far, we have not engaged in direct combat, but if necessary there will be a combined ground-air operation," an Air Force source said in New Delhi.

Major General P P S Bindra, commander of the elite counter-insurgency Delta Force, confirmed to AFP that the offensive had been launched in Doda and Banihal.

"We have launched helicopter-mounted operations in Doda and other areas of the Pir Panjal ranges to sanitise the belt against militant attacks", the general said in Jammu.

The helicopter operations in Pir Panjal were being carried out with ground support from heavily-armed paramilitary forces and commandos from the Kashmir police, who are familiar with the terrain, other officials said.

The offensive has been launched to "eliminate foreign mercenaries, including from the Lashkar-e-Toiba", pro-Pakistan Muslim guerrillas suspected by India to be behind Tuesday night's massacres, they said.

The operations in southern Kashmir came as Indian soldiers shot dead five cross-border separatist guerrillas in Kashmir's northern district of Kupwara, a defence ministry spokesman also said Thursday.

He said two were from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, while the other three belonged to other separatist groups, adding that all five were gunned down late Wednesday night.

In Jammu, Indian officials said the army's counter-offensive was also aimed at providing a "security blanket" to people living in remote areas in southern Kashmir.

Thousands of federal border guards, paramilitary forces and police deployed in the region have been placed on maximum alert in Doda, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur and Kathua, the officials said.

Night patrols have been intensified in and around Hindu-dominated districts and military installations and government offices to stem militant counter-attacks, the officials said.

Security barricades were also being installed at 31 localities without local self-defence committees.

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