(NSI News Source Info) SRINAGAR, India - April 26, 2009: More than 30 Islamic militants have crossed into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistan side of the divided region in recent weeks, a captured militant said Saturday. 
Syed Moinullah Shah, a suspected Pakistani rebel allegedly belonging to Hezb-ul-Mujahedeen, the largest Kashmiri guerrilla group fighting against Indian rule, and Brigadier Gurmeet Singh, right, look on during a press conference organized by the Indian army, at an army base in Srinagar, India, Saturday, April 25, 2009. Indian army arrested Shah in Indian-controlled Kashmir and recovered arms and ammunition from him, a top army officer said on Saturday.
The infiltration by such a large number of militants is likely to fuel security concerns in Kashmir which is in the middle of a five-stage general election that has been boycotted by Muslim separatists.
The first two rounds of voting passed off peacefully but next week polling moves to the region's more sensitive Muslim-majority areas.
"In all 120 of us infiltrated into this side of Kashmir," the militant, Sakib Moinullah Shah, told a press briefing arranged by the military in Srinagar.
"Thirty-one were militants. Others were porters, guides and those who cut the snow to make way for us," said Shah, a Pakistani national.
Shah was captured after a series of gunbattles with the security forces that left 12 of the militants dead.
According to the Indian army's senior officer in Kashmir, Brigadier General Gurmit Singh, another six died in an avalanche, leaving a dozen still at large.
The porters, guides and snow beaters had all crossed back over the Line of Control that divides Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
"These guides and porters are paid only after they return," Singh said.
Shah said he was a member of Indian Kashmir's most powerful militant group the Hizbul Mujahedin.
Kashmir is in the grip of a nearly 20-year old insurgency against Indian rule that has so far left more than 47,000 people dead, according to official figures.
Syed Moinullah Shah, a suspected Pakistani rebel allegedly belonging to Hezb-ul-Mujahedeen, the largest Kashmiri guerrilla group fighting against Indian rule, and Brigadier Gurmeet Singh, right, look on during a press conference organized by the Indian army, at an army base in Srinagar, India, Saturday, April 25, 2009. Indian army arrested Shah in Indian-controlled Kashmir and recovered arms and ammunition from him, a top army officer said on Saturday.
The infiltration by such a large number of militants is likely to fuel security concerns in Kashmir which is in the middle of a five-stage general election that has been boycotted by Muslim separatists.
The first two rounds of voting passed off peacefully but next week polling moves to the region's more sensitive Muslim-majority areas.
"In all 120 of us infiltrated into this side of Kashmir," the militant, Sakib Moinullah Shah, told a press briefing arranged by the military in Srinagar.
"Thirty-one were militants. Others were porters, guides and those who cut the snow to make way for us," said Shah, a Pakistani national.
Shah was captured after a series of gunbattles with the security forces that left 12 of the militants dead.
According to the Indian army's senior officer in Kashmir, Brigadier General Gurmit Singh, another six died in an avalanche, leaving a dozen still at large.
The porters, guides and snow beaters had all crossed back over the Line of Control that divides Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
"These guides and porters are paid only after they return," Singh said.
Shah said he was a member of Indian Kashmir's most powerful militant group the Hizbul Mujahedin.
Kashmir is in the grip of a nearly 20-year old insurgency against Indian rule that has so far left more than 47,000 people dead, according to official figures.
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