Dar Yasin / AP

Indian policemen take cover during a gunbattle in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, on March 13, 2013. A team of militants stormed a paramilitary camp Wednesday morning, leaving five soldiers and two militants dead, a police official said.

Dar Yasin / AP

Indian policemen and paramilitary soldiers react during a gunbattle in Srinagar on March 13, 2013.

Reuters reports — Two militants hiding automatic rifles and grenades in cricket equipment opened fire on a paramilitary camp on the Indian side of Kashmir on Wednesday, killing five Indian personnel and wounding five, police said.

The militants were killed in a gunfight at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) base just outside the restive city of Srinagar, which has been under curfew for much of the last few weeks following protests and clashes with police.

Local media reports said that Hizbul Mujahideen, the bitterly disputed region's largest militant group, had claimed responsibility for the attack, in which three civilians were also wounded.

Police said the gunmen approached the camp by mingling with children playing cricket in a nearby field, hiding their weapons in the cricket gear they were carrying. Once at the camp, they shot a sentry dead and then fired indiscriminately into the base. Read the full story.

EPA

Indian paramilitary soldiers carry a wounded colleague on March 13, 2013.

AFP - Getty Images, file

Kashmir's first all-girl rock band Pragaash perform at the annual 'Battle of the Bands' in Srinagar on Dec. 23, 2012.

EDITOR'S NOTE: NBC News obscured the faces in this photo to protect the band members' identities because of safety concerns.

The only all-girl band in India’s troubled Kashmir region has split up after a controversial Muslim cleric issued a fatwa against them.

However, the cleric -- Grand Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad – is now facing a backlash with a leading human-rights lawyer planning to take him to court over his claim that the band, Pragaash, was un-Islamic and other pronouncements.

After the fatwa, the three teenage girls received online threats prompting police to arrest three people, according to several reports including one by BBC News.

Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said on Twitter that he was “glad” that arrests had been made.

In an interview with India’s NDTV, a band member named as Aneeka, who is still in high school, insisted that “nothing has forced us to quit.”

“We quit for the happiness of our people. As the grand mufti said, it is un-Islamic ... that’s why we quit,” she said. NDTV pixilated her face when the interview was broadcast.

“Mufti … is a saint. He knows about our religion and must be respected,” Aneeka added.

'They feel very harassed'
However, for human rights lawyer Parvez Imroz, of the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, the fatwa against Pragaash was the last straw and he is now planning to take Ahmad to court.

“The lives of these girls were threatened. They feel very harassed,” he said.

Imroz, who is Muslim, said the grand mufti had appointed himself to the role and set up his own “supreme court.”

Ahmad's comments about Pragaash were the latest in a number of “very controversial” fatwas over the last few years, Imroz said, including calling for Americans to leave Kashmir and for Christians to appear in his court.

“We are filing the case because he’s claiming to be some ‘grand mufti.’ Under no law is there any such title,” the lawyer said. “Kashmir is very tolerant. Music … is part of our culture. These girls, they have a right to do it, but I’m telling you we are raising the bigger question about this institution in the society, this self-appointed priest and mufti who has been giving a very reactionary … view of Islam.”

Imroz said he wanted the court to rule that Ahmad had no legal standing, describing him as a “non-entity.”

Kashmir is claimed by India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over the region. It is the only state in India where the majority of people are Muslims.

In comments posted on NDTV’s website, some expressed their anger at the criticism of the band.

“We're heading in prehistoric era thanks to morons,” one said.

“It's really disheartening to see such narrow views are still being propagated in the country,” another added.

Related:

India alleges Pakistan cross-border attack was 'pre-planned,' warns of retaliation

Nuclear-armed rivals trade barbs over 'barbaric' cross-border attacks

NEW DELHI -- India's army chief accused Pakistan on Monday of detailed planning of an attack along Kashmir's de factor border last week in which two soldiers were killed and said India reserved the right to retaliate.

The comments, which came as public anger mounts over the decapitation of one of the slain soldiers, appear certain to further inflame tensions between the nuclear-armed enemies.

Last week's fighting was the worst outbreak of violence in Kashmir, the Himalayan region both nations claim, since the two sides agreed a cease-fire nine years ago. Indian and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Army Chief General Bikram Singh was speaking just hours before local commanders were to meet at the border to identify ways of reducing tensions and avoiding further clashes.

"The attack on January 8 was premeditated, a pre-planned activity. Such an operation requires planning, detailed reconnaissance," Singh told a news conference in New Delhi.

He said India reserved the right to retaliate against provocative acts on the border at a time and place of its choosing.

"I expect all my commanders at the Line of Control to be both aggressive and offensive in the face of provocation and fire," he said.

Both armies have lost two soldiers each in fighting along parts of 460-mile cease-fire line this month. One of the Indians was decapitated, New Delhi said, inflaming tempers in the country and prompting his family to start a hunger strike demanding that the severed head be brought back.

Pakistan has termed the Indian allegations as propaganda and blamed it for violations on the cease-fire line.

Islamabad accused Indian soldiers of entering its territory and killing a soldier on Jan 6. India said Pakistani soldiers intruded about 600 yards into its territory two days later and killed two Indian soldiers on patrol, the attack Singh was referring to.

'Gruesome act'
Pakistan said one of its soldiers was killed in further fighting on Thursday.

Singh said the beheading was a "gruesome act". He said a strong protest had been lodged with Pakistani authorities through diplomatic channels.

Additional reporting by Satarupa Bhattacharjya.

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Nuclear-armed rivals trade barbs over 'barbaric' cross-border attacks

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India and Pakistan traded sharp accusations on Wednesday over recent cross-border attacks in the disputed territory of Kashmir - but the nuclear-armed rivals appeared determined to prevent the tensions from escalating into a full diplomatic crisis.

India accused Pakistani troops of "barbaric and inhuman" behavior for killing and mutilating the bodies of two Indian soldiers after a firefight on Tuesday, and summoned Pakistan's envoy in New Delhi to lodge a protest against the "highly provocative" action.

Pakistan then accused Indian forces of attacking and killing a Pakistani soldier in a cross-border raid on Sunday.

Both nations deny each other's accusations.

Despite several violations of the 2003 ceasefire since the 460-mile Line of Control was put into place, incursions by troops from either side are uncommon, and officials rarely react as strongly and publicly as they have in the past few days.

Retired Indian army Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal, who previously commanded a brigade on the LoC, said Tuesday's incident - about 650 yards from the de facto border - marked the most serious infiltration since the ceasefire was put in place.

India considers the entire Kashmir region of snow-capped mountains and fertile valleys an integral part of its territory. Muslim Pakistan contests that and demands implementation of a 1948 U.N. Security Council resolution for a plebiscite to determine the wishes of the mostly Muslim people of Kashmir.

'Propaganda'
The body of one of the Indian soldiers was found mutilated in a forested area on the side controlled by India, Rajesh K. Kalia, spokesman for the Indian army's Northern Command, said. However, he denied Indian media reports that one body had been decapitated and another had its throat slit.

"Regular Pakistan troops crossed the Line of Control ... and engaged the Indian troops who were patrolling the sector," India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. "Two Indian soldiers were killed in the attack and their bodies subjected to barbaric and inhuman mutilation."

Pakistan rejected the allegations, saying it had carried out "ground verification" and found that "nothing of this sort happened as being alleged by India," a Pakistani military official said in a statement to NBC News.

The official said India's accusations were "propaganda" aimed at diverting attention from an Indian cross-border raid on Sunday which left one Pakistani soldier dead.

Nuclear-armed India, Pakistan talk peace over lunch

Another Pakistani military official told NBC News that the military had made too much progress working with India in decreasing cross-border infiltration to engage in such a conflict.

"The Indian government is under heavy fire with the rape scandals engulfing that country. They needed a scapegoat and a diversion. The scapegoat is Pakistan and the diversion is such incidents," the official said.

India's foreign minister sought to cool tensions, saying that exhaustive efforts to improve relations could be squandered if the situation was not contained.

"I think it is important in the long term that what has happened should not be escalated," Salman Khurshid told a news conference. "We cannot and must not allow the escalation of any unwholesome event like this."

"We have to be careful that forces ... attempting to derail all the good work that's been done towards normalization (of relations) should not be successful," he added, without elaborating on who such forces might be.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, and both are now nuclear-armed powers.

Away from the border, ties had appeared to be improving of late. Pakistan's cricket team completed a two-week tour of India on Sunday, its first visit in five years.

Reuters contributed to this report.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Pakistan militant group accused of killing 166 people in a 2008 gun rampage in Mumbai has warned of future attacks, Reuters reported, after India secretly executed the only surviving man responsible.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 25, a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was hanged at the Yerawada Prison in in Pune, southeast of Mumbai, at 7:30 a.m. local time Wednesday (9 p.m. ET Tuesday) -- hours after India's President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his legal appeal.

Sanjay Kanojia / AFP - Getty Images

Members of Bajrang Dal, a hard-line Hindu organization in India, distribute candy in Allahabad as they celebrate the execution of Pakistan-born Mohammed Kasab on Wednesday.

The Pakistani national was the only suspect to be captured alive after Nov. 26, 2008 atrocity -- locally dubbed "26/11" -- in which 10 militants embarked on a 60-hour killing spree that engulfed cafes and luxury hotels including the landmark Taj Mahal Palace.

Special Report: Pakistan's threat within -- the Sunni-Shia divide

Pictures of the young gunman wearing a black T-shirt and toting an AK-47 rifle as he strode through Mumbai's train station were published around the world -- helping to secure his eventual conviction and death sentence in August.

The Times Of India / Reuters, file

Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, pictured in the Victoria Terminus railway station in Mumbai on Nov. 26, 2008.

Kasab was buried inside the prison where he was hanged, officials said. India said it would hand over the body to Pakistan if a request was made, underlying the sensitivities and severely strained relations between the two nations.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group seeking the propagation of Islam around the region and an end to Indian rule of Kashmir, is blamed by India for the planning the attacks. Kasab confessed to being a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to Pakistan news site Dawn, but the organization was never conclusively linked to the crime. Pakistan also denies any official involvement.

Reuters said it spoke on the telephone Wednesday to one the group’s senior commanders, who said Kasab was a "hero" whose death would "inspire other fighters to follow his path."

PhotoBlog: Thousands attend funeral of suspected Kashmir militant

The Pakistan Taliban said it was shocked by the hanging.  

"There is no doubt that it's very shocking news and a big loss that a Muslim has been hanged on Indian soil," Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told Reuters.

CNN IBN via Reuters, file

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving suspected gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is seen under police custody at an undisclosed location, in this undated still file image taken from video footage shown on the CNN-IBN television channel since February 3, 2009.

However, there were celebrations in India.

"When I heard the news of Kasab's execution today, I remembered those horrifying moments of the attack," said Vishnu Zende, who was working at Mumbai's train station on the day of the attack. "My eyes were filled with tears."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Dar Yasin / AP

Kashmiri villagers grieve during the funeral procession of Shabir Ahmed Mir, a suspected militant of Lashkar-e-Taiba, in Chingam, some 37 miles south of Srinagar, India, on Nov. 14, 2012.

Thousands of people turned out for the funeral of a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militant in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday. Shabir Ahmed Mir was killed in a gunbattle with government forces in the restive region on Tuesday, according to police. 

-- The Associated Press

Dar Yasin / AP

Kashmiri villagers pray by the body of Shabir Ahmed Mir on Nov. 14, 2012.

Dar Yasin / AP

Shabir Ahmed Mir's mother holds a glass of milk as she clings to the bed carrying the body of her son during his funeral procession on Nov. 14, 2012.

See more images from Kashmir on PhotoBlog.

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Mukhtar Khan / AP

Indian policemen detain a Kashmiri teacher during a protest in Srinagar on July 16, 2012.

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir detained dozens of government teachers during a protest on Monday, The Associated Press reports. The teachers had taken to the streets demanding a hike in salary and regularization of their jobs. 

Tauseef Mustafa / AFP - Getty Images

A teacher holds a placard during a protest in Srinagar on July 16, 2012. 50 Rupees equals $0.90 USD.

Fayaz Kabli / Reuters

A Kashmiri government teacher inside a police van after he was detained during a protest in Srinagar on July 16, 2012.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Pilgrims line up to enter the Amarnath cave, one of the most revered Hindu shrines, on June 29, 2012 in Indian Kashmir.

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

Hindu pilgrims walk along a mountain path as they make their pilgrimage to the sacred Amarnath Cave on June 30, 2012 near Baltal.

Photographers Kevin Frayer and Daniel Berehulak joined thousands of pilgrims on a trek to the remote Himalayan shrine of Amarnath, which stands at an altitude of 3,888 meters (12,756 feet).

Getty Images reports:

Hindu devotees brave sub-zero temperatures to hike over glaciers and high altitude mountain passes to reach the sacred Amarnath cave, which houses an ice stalagmite, a stylized phallus, worshiped by Hindus as a symbol of the god Shiva.

More than 700,000 Hindu pilgrims are expected to take part in this year's two-month pilgrimage, according to local officials, putting strains on the environment and political stability of the region, which has long fought for independence from India.

See pictures of last year's pilgrimage to Amarnath on PhotoBlog

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Kevin Frayer / AP

A Hindu holy man wearing little clothing walks down a snowy hill during the traditional journey to the Amarnath cave, near Panitarni on June 28, 2012.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Pilgrims wearing track suits rest on the journey to the Amarnath cave on June 30, 2012.

Kevin Frayer / AP

The camp for Hindu pilgrims is seen at the Amarnath cave, near Sangam on June 29, 2012.

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

A pilgrim is carried on a palanquin by Kashmiri bearers over a glacier on her way to the sacred Amarnath Cave on June 29, 2012.

Kevin Frayer / AP

A Hindu holy man gestures to well-wishers as he is carried down a trail, near Panitarni on June 28, 2012.

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

A young pilgrim cries as he struggles along the path as he walks with his family during their pilgrimage to the sacred Amarnath Cave on June 28, 2012 near Baltal.

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

Pilgrims line up for a meal at a Lungar facility providing free food, near Baltal on June 29, 2012.

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

Pilgrims walk along a mountain trail during their pilgrimage to the sacred Amarnath Cave on June 30, 2012.

Mukhtar Khan / AP

A Kashmiri Muslim woman kisses the charred walls of a shrine that held a few relics from Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani in downtown Srinagar, India, on June 27. Thousands of Indian forces patrolled tense streets in Kashmir's main city on Wednesday as residents boycotted work for a third straight day to protest the fiery destruction of the 200-year-old Muslim shrine.

Rouf Bhat / AFP - Getty Images

A Kashmiri Muslim volunteer helps clear debris inside the charred remains of the 200-year old shrine of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani, also known as Dastigheer Sahib, in downtown Srinagar on June 27. A major fire gutted a 200-year-old, revered Sufi Muslim shrine in Indian Kashmir June 25, sparking clashes between police and residents in the region's summer capital Srinagar, police said. Nearly two dozen people were injured in the violence, triggered by anger at the perceived delayed response of firefighters in battling the blaze.

Previously on PhotoBlog: Blaze at Sufi shrine triggers violence in Indian Kashmir