Indian security forces killed 17 Kashmiri fighters who tried to cross into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan to try to disrupt Monday's elections in the state, the state government said. Eight guerrillas were killed in two operations on Monday in Surankote and Keran areas near the Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Nine others were killed late on Sunday in Tangdhar, also near the heavily militarized control line, officials said. "Determined to foil Pakistan's attempt to disrupt the ongoing poll process, security forces killed 17 infiltrating Kashmiri fighters in three different operations," a Jammu and Kashmir government statement quoted police chief A.K.Suri as saying.

Kashmir is at the heart of a nine-month-old military standoff between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan. New Delhi says elections in Jammu and Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority state, will be a key test of Pakistan's pledge to stop rebel incursions into the territory.

Islamabad says the Kashmiri fighters have stopped crossing over into Indian Kashmir except for what it calls rogue elements, and has dismissed the election as a farce. It insists on a U.N.-mandated plebiscite to determine the future of Kashmir.

PHOTO CAPTION

Indian Border Security Force(BSF) personnel guard people lining up outside polling station at the Kashmiri village of Nutnunsa, September 16, 2002. Indian-ruled Kashmir ended a first stage of state assembly elections against a backdrop of violence and in the shadow of a tense confrontation between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. (Pawel Kopczynski/Re