India claims Pak soldier held, Pak army denies

Srinagar: Police said on Tuesday that they arrested three militants, one of them a Pakistani soldier, for allegedly planning a suicide attack in Kashmir.

Pakistan's army, however, denied the arrested man was a serving soldier. The arrests came as India deployed thousands of troops in Srinagar, a day before a crucial last phase of state polls on Wednesday.

Jammu and Kashmir goes to the last and seventh phase of assembly elections on Wednesday. Police said that they had been conducting raids in the entire state over the past few days to thwart trouble ahead of the polls.

During the raids, they arrested three members of the banned Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group on suspicion of planning suicide bombings in Kashmir during polling.

"One of the three has been identified as Ghulam Farid alias Gulshan Kumar, a sepoy (soldier) of the Pakistan Army," Kashmir police director general Kuldeep Khuda told a news conference.

A Pakistan military official said Farid deserted army in 2006 from the central city of Okara. "He's certainly not an army employee and his unit was not deployed at the Line of Control when he deserted the army," a military official said on condition of anonymity.

"Indians might have apprehended Ghulam Farid sometime back and now staging this drama because of current situation," he added.

On Monday, two policemen were killed when suspected separatist militants fired at a police patrol in north Kashmir.

Kashmiri separatists, many of them in jail, have called for a boycott of the seven-stage polls saying India portrays voting as an endorsement of its rule over the disputed Himalayan region. But a high turnout in the six rounds of the election has encouraged authorities despite the scattered clashes between anti-poll protesters and Government forces.

On Tuesday, thousands of police and soldiers armed with assault rifles patrolled deserted streets in Srinagar and warned residents to stay indoors. Shops, businesses government offices and banks remained closed in the Valley, due to security restrictions.

Officials say more than 47,000 people have been killed in nearly two decades of violence, involving Indian troops and Muslim militants in Kashmir, which was hit by massive anti-India protests earlier this year.