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SRINAGAR, Friday (AFP) Twenty people, including five Muslim civilians, were killed Thursday in a day of violence in Kashmir as India ruled out any pullback of troops from the Pakistan border before October elections.

Indian officials said they had expected a surge in violence starting in late June as hardline Islamic separatists look to disrupt elections in the Indian-administered state due by October 14.

Defense Minister George Fernandes said India's security cabinet had decided there was no question of recalling hundreds of thousands of troops who are stationed on the border with Pakistan before the polls took place.

"We cannot withdraw forces till elections in Jammu and Kashmir are over and after that it depends on the situation," Fernandes told reporters on a visit to the riot-torn western state of Gujarat.

"There has been no change in Pakistan's policy so far as cross-border infiltration is concerned," Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in a weekend interview to Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.

"Every day we are getting reports that infiltration continues unabated," he said.

There has been less militant activity in Kashmir in recent weeks, but suspected rebels earlier this month put up posters warning people to wrap up their social engagements by June 26 because they were planning to increase their attacks.

The warning seemed accurate as a series of attacks around the state left 20 civilians, policemen, soldiers and rebels dead Thursday.

The Indian government is hoping the election in Kashmir will pass off peacefully, thereby ending Kashmiris' criticism that New Delhi has prevented them from choosing their own leaders.

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