By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 27, 1999; Page A31

Background: Kashmir Kashmir, about twice the size of Virginia, has been a flash point between India and Pakistan since the two nations became independent more than 50 years ago. Sovereignty over the area was left unresolved when the Indian subcontinent was divided into India and Pakistan. The two nations have fought two wars and countless skirmishes over the region. Pakistani-controlled area Administrative areas: Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas. Land/people: About one-third of Kashmir with 2 million people, almost all Muslims. Claims: Pakistan does not recognize a 1947 treaty of accession with India made by the maharaja who ruled Kashmir prior to independence. This led to the first war in 1947, which resulted in a cease-fire line of separation. Renewed fighting in 1965 and subsequent years produced little change. * Paramilitary Muslim groups frequently skirmish with Indian military forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan denies giving them military aid. Indian-controlled area Administrative areas: State of Jammu and Kashmir. Land: Almost two-thirds of Kashmir with 8 million people, two-thirds of whom are Muslims. Claims: India regards the entire Kashmir region as its territory. China has occu-pied an area of northern Kashmir since 1962. * A Muslim separatist movement that seeks inclusion of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan or independence has been a major problem for New Delhi and a cause of friction with Pakistan. SOURCES: Encyclopedia Americana, Political Handbook, staff reports

KARACHI, Pakistan, May 26—India launched a series of airstrikes today at armed Muslim infiltrators in its portion of the Himalayan region of Kashmir after Indian authorities said Pakistan had helped several hundred of them cross into the territory.

The attacks constituted the most serious military flare-up between India and Pakistan since both countries conducted nuclear tests a year ago. Pakistan responded by putting its armed forces on high alert, calling the situation "very, very serious." But officials in both countries indicated that they did not want the border clash to escalate into war, and their prime ministers spoke by telephone late today in an effort to defuse the tension.

Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan, is one of the major sore points in the uneasy relationship between the two longtime rivals. India, which controls the southern two-thirds of Kashmir, has long accused Pakistan of assisting Muslim guerrillas who seek to end Indian rule there. Pakistan, which controls the northern third, has accused Indian troops of killing and torturing Muslim civilians in India's portion.

Western governments have feared that a flare-up in the long-simmering dispute could trigger serious hostilities between the neighbors, who already have fought three brief conventional wars -- two over Kashmir -- and now possess nuclear weapons.

Indian military officials said they sent Soviet-built Mi-17 helicopter gunships backed by MiG fighter planes at 6:30 a.m. to strafe and bomb mountain ridges on India's side of the so-called line of control, a 450-mile-long cease-fire line separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled portions of Kashmir. After the two-hour raid, the planes returned in mid-afternoon for a second strike. Indian military officials said the attacks would continue until the infiltrators were dislodged or had returned to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

Reports of casualties could not be confirmed, but Indian military authorities said that more than 160 intruders had been killed and that 17 Indian soldiers had died and another 14 were missing. A Kashmiri guerrilla group reportedly said its members had suffered no losses in the air raids.

Pakistani military officials said today that three Indian jet fighters had dropped bombs on the Pakistani side of the line of control, causing no damage. "This makes the matter very, very serious," said Brig. Rashid Qureshi, a Pakistani military spokesman. "Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate in whatever manner it considers appropriate."

Indian authorities strongly denied that any bombs had landed on Pakistani territory.

In New Delhi, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said India had acted to flush out "a large number of armed intruders" who had entered Indian territory "with the full complicity and support of the Pakistani government." He called the incursion "a blatant violation" of several major bilateral agreements, including a joint declaration made by the prime ministers of both countries in February.

Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani said the government had decided to launch the airstrikes, unprecedented in peacetime between the neighbors, to show Pakistan that "you cannot get away with this kind of army action." Speaking to reporters, Advani vowed that "this blatant operation by Pakistan . . . will be smashed."

[Early Thursday, India launched a second day of strikes with six MiG planes and two Mi-17 helicopter gunships, Reuters news agency reported.]

Pakistani officials dismissed as "complete rubbish" Indian charges of direct involvement by Pakistan troops in the infiltration. Pakistan has always acknowledged that it provides moral and political support for the Muslim guerrillas in Kashmir but denies that it gives them military assistance.

Despite the heated rhetoric, there were indications from officials of both countries that neither is eager to see the situation escalate into war. In Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz called for restraint on both sides, and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pakistan wants to promote dialogue and "good-neighborly relations" between the two countries.

U.S. and British officials also called for restraint, and the U.S. ambassador to New Delhi, Richard Celeste, met privately with Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes after the first round of airstrikes. An embassy spokeswoman said Celeste had expressed concern and the hope "that the situation can be contained and brought to an end." In Washington, the State Department said the latest Kashmir fighting "underlines the pressing need for India and Pakistan to resolve their differences."

The Indian air assault came after two weeks of efforts by ground troops apparently failed to dislodge the estimated 400 to 600 guerrillas who allegedly had taken up positions in the cold, mountainous Kashmiri regions of Kargil, Drass and Batalik, penetrating several miles into Indian-held territory.

Kashmir has been the focus of a bitter territorial dispute between India and Pakistan virtually since India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and Pakistan was carved out of the subcontinent as a new Muslim nation. Kashmir was divided between the two countries, but many of the Muslims who make up the majority in the Indian portion have sought to win independence for the state or to link it to Pakistan.

Kashmiri Muslim insurgents have been waging a low-intensity war in the region for nine years, and more than 15,000 people have died in the fighting. During the winter, the insurgents generally withdraw from the frigid border area and Indian military vigilance relaxes. But early this spring, Indian authorities said, a large group of highly trained infiltrators slipped back into Indian territory undetected. Officials in New Delhi called the situation a "serious intelligence failure."

They said the infiltrators included "Afghan mercenaries" and Pakistani army troops, although sources in Pakistan said they were largely Pakistani youths recruited from Islamic religious schools and then trained in Afghanistan, which is controlled by a radical Islamic militia.

Since May 6, thousands of Indian troops have been combing the border area in an effort to flush out the guerrillas. On Monday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee reportedly warned Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by phone to pull back the intruders, saying India might launch airstrikes against them.

Special correspondent Rama Lakshmi in New Delhi contributed to this report.