Kashmir state police Inspector-General P.L. Gupta said the six-day hunt by hundreds of soldiers for the elusive guerrillas in the dense jungles of Kathua district had come up empty.

"We tried to search the whole area and did not find anyone and so we are calling off the operation," Gupta announced at a press conference in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

The operations were abandoned a day after the Indian army on Sunday sent 500 battle-hardened Gurkha soldiers into the Kathua forests where the militants had held 1,500 soldiers at bay since last Tuesday.

Police chief Gupta said the troops who laid siege to Kathua's virtually impregnable Ghati forests were being sent back to barracks.

"The troops carried out search operations in a difficult terrain but we have not come across any rebel, alive or dead ...," he said, but added the Indian military will set up permanent security posts in the frontier region.

"Since we have reports that rebel groups may attempt to sneak into the area which have caused concern among the civilians in Ghati, we have decided to establish army and police camps," he said.

Gupta also said troops were now hot on the trail of other militant groups believed to be moving through different sectors of Kathua, which borders adjoining Pakistan.

"We have received some reports about movement of militants in two parts of Kathua district -- Billawar and Jhakore -- and search parties have been rushed to these areas," he said in the hurriedly-called news conference.

The Kathua operations led to the death of one soldier and injuries to seven policemen who came into the line of fire of the militants.

Security experts here believe that all seven rebels escaped before the military dragnet closed in on them in the ravine-creased Ghati forests.

The Kashmir insurgency has claimed more than 38,000 lives since 1989, according to Indian officials, or between 80,000 and 100,000 according to separatists.

WAR.WIRE