'Rebels kill six Indian soldiers'

A separatist group in the Indian state of Manipur claims their fighters have killed at least six Indian soldiers in an attack on an outpost.

The United National Liberation Front (UNLF) of Manipur told the BBC its fighters used heavy mortars and even light artillery during the assault.

UNLF spokesman Tombi Singh said they targeted a camp of the 24th Battalion Assam Rifles at Minou on Saturday.

But the Indian military said the attack had been repulsed without casualties.

Minou is located in Chandel district on the north-eastern state of Manipur's border with Burma.

"Two of the seven quarters in the Assam Rifles were burnt down after they caught fire following our mortar assault," Mr Singh claimed.

"We also know the six dead soldiers have been taken to [Manipur's state capital] Imphal by helicopters."

'Beaten back'

Mr Singh said the 293rd battalion of the UNLF had carried out the attack on the Assam Rifles outpost.

But military spokesman Rajeev Mishra said the fight had left a few soldiers with only minor injuries, adding: "The attack was successfully beaten back."

Manipur police, however, said at least one Assam Rifles soldier was killed and seven others were injured.

More than 100 UNLF rebels were said to have been involved in the attack on the Assam Rifles outpost.

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Indian spy convict 'faces death'

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly signed the death warrant for an Indian man who was convicted of spying and carrying out bomb blasts.
A Lahore jail official said Sarabjit Singh would be executed on 1 April.

He says he is a poor farmer and victim of mistaken identity who strayed drunk from his border village into Pakistan.

The human rights minister of Pakistan, Ansar Burney, told the BBC he was not aware of any death warrant being signed by the president.

Mr Musharraf rejected Mr Singh's mercy petition earlier this month, a day after another Indian man, Kashmir Singh, was released following 35 years on death row in Pakistan for alleged spying.

Sarabjit Singh was convicted in 1991 of spying and carrying out four bombings which killed 14 people the year before in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Faisalabad.

Political pressure

Pakistani officials say he was arrested while trying to slip back into India.

Two years ago, Pakistan's Supreme Court rejected Mr Singh's attempt to have his death sentence overturned.

The case has received wide publicity in India and the government has come under intense political pressure to intervene.

In 2005, former Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh asked for Mr Singh to be pardoned on humanitarian grounds.

India and Pakistan have jailed hundreds of each other's soldiers and civilians over years of hostility.

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