The army killed six rebels during a two-day gunbattle in Indian Kashmir which was believed to be an attempt by militants to disrupt elections in the region, a spokesman said Wednesday.

An Indian soldier was also killed in the fighting which started on Tuesday when militants crossed the heavily fortified border with Pakistan.

Police said Tuesday they were investigating a blaze that devastated a church in the Indian capital, as hundreds of Christians took to the streets to protest what they said was a deliberate attack.

A church spokesman said there was a strong smell of kerosene after the fire that destroyed most of Saint Sebastian's, one of Delhi's biggest churches, on Monday morning.

The French and Indian defense ministers agreed to press ahead with negotiations on the sale of 126 Rafale fighter jets to India, both sides said Tuesday, after slow progress cast doubt on the estimated $12 billion deal.

Successive deadlines to complete one of the world's biggest airline contracts have slipped by, leading to reports that Britain's Eurofighter could try to re-enter the race.

Maoist rebels killed 13 police and wounded another 12 in an ambush in a remote part of central India on Monday, two senior officers said.

The troops were carrying out an operation deep in a forest when the gunmen attacked, the head of Chhattisgarh state's anti-Maoist operations told AFP.

Suspected rebels have shot dead a village head in Indian Kashmir, police said Monday, a day before a second stage of voting in the tense Muslim-majority state.

Security is tight across the region, where thousands of extra paramilitary troops have been deployed during local elections, which are being held in five stages.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Sunday to halt illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Assam, saying they were "destroying" the northeastern state.

Modi, whose right-wing Hindu nationalist party stormed to power at May elections, said: "Bangladeshis are entering Assam every day and destroying the state."   

Nearly deaf and riddled with cancer and ulcers, 90-year-old Rampyari Bai insists she will never give up fighting for justice for victims of the world's worst industrial disaster.

"I will fight until my very last breath, even if I have to crawl on the ground," says Bai at her home in Bhopal, the site of a catastrophic leak at a chemical plant on December 2, 1984.

Leading gold buyer India has announced it has eased controls on imports of the yellow metal after its current account deficit narrowed sharply.

India, the world's second-biggest gold buyer after China, imposed the import restrictions last year to avert a trade deficit crisis that pushed the rupee to record lows.

Pakistani on Friday announced the release of 40 Indian prisoners, including 35 fishermen held for violating territorial waters, a day after a major South Asian summit closed.

The fishermen -- who had been detained for between one and three years -- will travel from Karachi to the eastern city of Lahore, where the two neighbours and arch-rivals have their only active border crossing.

India said Friday it was still searching for 39 construction workers abducted in Iraq in June, denying a report claiming they had been executed by the Islamic State group.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj urged the workers' families not to lose hope, despite not knowing the whereabouts of the men who were rounded up by jihadists in Mosul city.