Four Indian army soldiers, including an officer, were killed early Sunday in an apparent suicide attack on a military camp by two suspected separatist militants in Kashmir, police said.
Four other soldiers were wounded and taken to hospital.
A defense department spokesman said the two armed militants entered a camp of the 34 Rashtriya Rifles, an elite Indian army counter-insurgency group, at Handwara, 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the state summer capital Srinagar.
They were later killed in a firefight and two AK-47 assault rifles and two rocket launchers were recovered from their bodies.
The defense department said in a statement the men were members of the Pakistan-based Lashker-i-Toiba rebel group.
Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state. The separatist Muslim insurgency has claimed more than 34,000 lives since it was launched in 1989.
The Himalayan state of Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India and is claimed by both neighbors.
Meanwhile, Indian army troops also mistakenly killed a mentally retarded homeless man at Rehama village in Baramulla, 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Srinagar late Saturday, police said.
Police said a patrol shot the man when he started running when they tried to stop him for questioning, thinking he was a separatist militant -- SRINAGAR (AFP)
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