SRINAGAR, India, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Eight suspected militants were shot dead in Kashmir by Indian troops on Saturday, as the country's army chief visited the troubled Himalayan region, an army spokesman said. Two soldiers were also killed in two separate clashes in north Kashmir near the Line of Control, a de facto border which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The militants were killed when they tried to sneak into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani side in the Tangdhar sector north of Srinagar, the state's summer capital. Elsewhere in the state, two soldiers and two militants were killed in separate gun battles across the region in the past 24 hours, police said. Firefights between Indian troops and separatist militants have stepped up in Muslim-majority Kashmir since the beginning of the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan. Earlier this week two Indian army officers and nine militants were killed near a mountain resort in the bloodiest gun battle in months in the region. "The incidents of violence do come up when there has been peace for sometime," Indian army chief General Deepak Kapoor, who began his two-day visit to the region, told a news conference. But the overall level of violence has fallen significantly since India and Pakistan, both of whom claim the region in full but rule it in parts, began peace talks in 2004, officials say. However, the dialogue has made slow progress in resolving the decades-old territorial dispute over Kashmir. More than 42,000 people have been killed in Kashmir after a revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989, officials say. Human rights groups put the toll at about 60,000 dead or missing.
