March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan is failing to control the Lashkar-e-Taiba group in the disputed territory of Kashmir and between 40 and 50 terrorist camps are operational in the region, Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor said.

“Lashkar is very much still active,” Kapoor said yesterday in New Delhi, according to India’s state-run broadcaster Doordarshan. A band of 17 militants killed recently in Kupwara were from the group, the army said.

India blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba for attacks in Mumbai in November that killed 164 people. Pakistan said last month it charged eight people with helping the terrorists stage the raids in the Indian city.

The Mumbai incident interrupted a five-year peace process between India and Pakistan. Kashmir, the Himalayan territory divided between the South Asian nuclear-armed neighbors and claimed in full by both, has been the cause of two of their three wars since 1947.

Pakistan has denied backing insurgents in Kashmir and said it has only provided moral support. While it formally banned Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002, the group continued to operate under the name Jamaat ud-Dawa, according to independent analysts and a United Nations counterterrorism committee.

Militants Assisted

Equipment seized from the 17 militants killed in Kupwara indicated that Pakistani security forces assisted them in infiltrating Indian territory, Kapoor said, according to Doordarshan.

“The amount of difference those arrests (in Pakistan) have made -- it’s for you all to judge and see for yourselves,” he told journalists.

Five Indian soldiers were killed in the fighting, the Press Trust of India reported on March 22.

Between 40 and 50 terrorist camps are in the region, Kapoor estimated. “They keep shifting because they don’t wish to be at one particular location,” he said.

A large number of non-Pakistani fighters are operating in the region and terrorists are waiting to infiltrate across the so-called Line of Control that divides Kashmir, Kapoor said.

The peace process between India and Pakistan, known as the composite dialogue, has rebuilt diplomatic, transport and sporting links. The countries began the talks in 2003 after coming close to war the previous year.

India and Pakistan last month held their highest-level meeting since the Mumbai attacks when Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Sri Lanka.

India says progress in relations depends on Pakistan’s response to fighting terrorism.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 25, 2009 21:02 EDT