India claims to hold vital peak

INDIA SAID yesterday it had captured the strategic Tiger Hill on its side of a military line of control in Kashmir after a fierce all- night battle. The15,060ft peak commands a vital stretch of the Indian highway through northern Kashmir.

However, a spokesman for the Kashmiri militant group, Lashkar-i-Taiba, dismissed India's claim to have captured the hill. "It is Indian propaganda to create confusion between Kashmiri militant groups and the government of Pakistan while [Pakistan's] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is in the US," said the Information Secretary, Abdullah Muntazir.

Mr Sharif flew to Washington yesterday for talks with President Bill Clinton, raising speculation that diplomatic moves were imminent in an attempt to solve the crisis with its arch-foe over Kashmir. (Reuters)