Close combat on the 15,100-foot high Tololing peak raged through the night in what commanders said was a crucial battle against the guerrillas. The hostilities have increased tensions between India and Pakistan, the world's two newest nuclear powers.
The guerrillas seized strategic mountain positions in the Indian-held part of Kashmir earlier this month. India accuses Pakistan of backing the guerrillas in a bid to change the cease-fire line through the divided territory. Pakistan denies it.
Fighting spread to another front today when Indian and Pakistani border forces exchanged artillery and gunfire along a 30-mile line in the plains of southern Kashmir near the Indian city of Jammu. It is about 170 miles southwest of the battle on Tololing.
The firing was much heavier than the frequent exchanges in the border area.
Both India and Pakistan have reinforced their lines with tanks, military sources in Jammu said.
India agreed Monday to hold high-level talks with Pakistan over the hostilities in Kashmir. The territory is claimed by both countries and has been at the center of two of the three wars between the South Asia rivals.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee says his troops will continue fighting until the guerrillas are dislodged. "It is a matter of time that we would be able to remove them from these areas," said Defense Minister George Fernandes.
India has hammered the guerrillas for a week with airstrikes. More jets were seen today flying toward suspected guerrilla positions while artillery shelled the mountains.
Indian shells slammed into a high school today in the Pakistani village Nagdar, 70 miles from the fighting, killing 10 students, officials said. Six people were killed on the Indian side Monday when a shell hit a government building.
Thousands of people living in the area have fled, including 2,000 being evacuated from the Pakistani border town of Samani today. They were headed for refugee camps set up by the Pakistani government.
"The firing did not stop all night. We are frightened," said Nasima Akhtar, who was crammed into a bus with her children. Atop the bus, their luggage vied for space with chairs and beds of other villagers.
On the Tololing peak, Indian soldiers neared guerrilla positions, in some places within 30 feet, said commanders in the region, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity. Two soldiers were killed Monday by sniper fire on Tololing, they said.
Guerrillas also control nearly a dozen smaller hills near Tololing, but the commanders said their soldiers would not attack them. Instead they will encircle the positions and try to starve out the guerrillas.
India says it has killed 400 of the 600 militants who entered India-controlled Kashmir. The claim could not be independently verified. Military experts have said fully dislodging them could take weeks.
Indian and Pakistani troops have long skirmished along the cease-fire line in Kashmir. Also, various Islamic militant groups have been fighting to gain independence from majority-Hindu India or to join Pakistan.
Pakistan has acknowledged giving the militants political and moral support.
India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons last year, but they are not yet believed to have fully developed delivery systems.