33 Die in Kashmir Attack

JAMMU, India — Suspected Islamic militants attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir on Tuesday, shooting soldiers and their families in the camp’s living quarters in an assault that left at least 33 people dead, including 10 children, officials said.

It was the deadliest attack by suspected militants in the disputed Himalayan region since an Oct. 1 suicide bombing and shootout at the state legislature that left 40 people dead.

On Tuesday, three assailants in army uniforms got off a bus outside the camp at Kaluchak and fired at soldiers, police Supt. Subhash Raina said. Seven bus passengers were killed in the ensuing battle, he said.

The militants then entered the camp’s residential quarters and fatally shot five soldiers and 18 of their family members, said Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, the top elected official of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. The three militants also were killed.

Ten of the victims were children and 12 were women, he said. At least 45 people were wounded.

Kaluchak is six miles south of Jammu, Kashmir’s winter capital.

The attack came as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca met with top Indian officials Tuesday to urge them to resume dialogue with Pakistan to end a six-month military standoff between the nuclear rivals.

“It is just this type of barbarism that the war on terrorism is determined to stop,” Rocca said.

A Kashmiri news agency said it received two phone calls from Islamic militant groups claiming responsibility for the attack, but Indian officials said neither claim seemed credible.

More than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for the independence of the Indian-controlled portion of the Kashmir region, or its merger with Pakistan. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of arming, training and funding the militants. Pakistan denies doing so but says it supports their goals.

The Pakistani government condemned Tuesday’s attack. “Such incidents warrant an impartial and comprehensive inquiry to unmask the motives of their perpetrators,” a government statement said.

In India’s Parliament, Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said that “the incident appears to have been timed to demonstrate to the world that despite the global coalition against terrorism, terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir will continue to be active.”