A militant group blamed for the Mumbai attacks threatened on Wednesday more violence in disputed Indian Kashmir after a five-day gun battle with troops that killed 25 people. "The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) will continue to render sacrifices for the freedom of Kashmir and coming days would prove costly for Indian forces," Abdullah Gaznavi, the spokesman for the group, told Reuters by telephone. Indian soldiers shot dead 17 militants and eight troops were killed in the gunbattle that began last Friday in Shamsbari forest near the Line of Control, a ceasefire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, officials said. Brigadier Gurmit Singh, a senior Indian army officer, said the militants were "well-trained, heavily armed and indoctrinated". An LeT spokesman said the group, established in the 1990s to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, had laid an ambush for Indian soldiers who were patrolling in the area.
