India has renewed calls for Pakistan to cut links with militant groups today as 13 people were killed in gun battles and bombings across disputed Kashmir.
Suspected Muslim rebels executed five members of one family in Kashmir, briefly cut the state's main highway and raided a military base in attacks that could derail a fragile peace process with Pakistan. Seven militants and a Kashmiri policeman died in the fighting.
"Time has come, in Pakistan's own interest and in the interest of peace, that Pakistan should unclench its fist, wipe its hands clean of the stains of terrorism and firmly grasp the hand of friendship that we have extended," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Mr Navtej Sarna told reporters in New Delhi.
India says the guerrillas fighting its rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir are armed, trained and financed by Pakistan, charges denied by Islamabad. Pakistan, which condemned last week's car bombings in Bombay that killed 52, blames India for slowing down the peace process.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said last week that talks with the neighbour were impossible until the violence stopped.
No group has claimed responsibility for any of the incidents.
The nuclear-armed nations have in recent months restored full diplomatic relations and bus links in the first steps toward normalcy.
Islamabad has also said it will free 269 Indian fishermen held in Pakistani jails later this week, Mr Sarna said. The two countries often arrest each other's fishermen for illegal fishing but usually release them after a few months.