The Indian army killed three suspected rebels and another person was shot dead during a six-hour gun battle Wednesday on a military camp in Indian Kashmir near the border with Pakistan, a military spokesman said.

Heavily-armed fighters stormed the army base in Tangdhar, 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of the main city of Srinagar, setting off grenades and firing automatic weapons.

India has deployed the army and air force to rescue flood-hit residents in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where at least 71 people have died in around a week of torrential rains.

Media reports said military helicopters were being used to drop food and drinking water to the worst-hit areas, while schools and businesses in state capital Chennai had been forced to close.

For residents of the bustling Indian city of Mumbai, the horrific attacks in Paris on Friday night carry somber echoes of a bloody series of killings in their own city seven years ago.

A total of 166 people were killed in November 2008 when Islamist gunmen stormed luxury hotels, the main railway station, a Jewish center and other sites in the booming metropolis, the financial heart of India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hit Tuesday with the first open internal challenge to his leadership since taking power, with senior members of his party expressing anger at the loss of a key state election.

One-time Modi mentor LK Advani and three other veterans of his right-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued a statement that appeared to accuse the premier of failing to seek consensus, without naming him directly.

Two Indians and a Saudi policeman were wounded by gunfire in the east of the kingdom as authorities hunted suspects linked to unrest by minority Shiites, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

A police traffic patrol "came under heavy fire from a farming area" in the Shiite-populated Qatif district on Monday evening, the ministry's spokesman said.

India's finance minister vowed Monday to push ahead with much-needed reforms after his party's drubbing at a key weekend state poll hiked fears of a slowdown in the government's promised agenda.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a shock defeat at assembly elections in one of India's biggest and poorest states after a no-holds barred campaign fronted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Narendra Modi conceded defeat Sunday in a key regional election in one of India's most populous states, a result that comes as a major blow to the prime minister's vote-winning appeal.

Partial results showed Modi's Hindu nationalist party was badly lagging in the Bihar state assembly vote, with only 53 of the 243 available seats, compared to 176 for a coalition of rival regional parties.

Security forces killed a top commander from Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in troubled Indian Kashmir on Thursday, striking a blow against the outlawed militant group, the region's police chief said.

Abdul Rehman, known as Abu Qasim, was killed during a gunfight with security forces overnight outside Kulgam town, 89 kilometres (55 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar, Inspector General Javid Gillani said.

Nearly 280 people were killed Monday when a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake centered in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan ripped across South Asia, toppling buildings, triggering stampedes and knocking out communication lines.

The full scale of the disaster and human toll was unclear when night fell over the remote and rugged terrain as authorities in Pakistan and Afghanistan rushed to mount rescue efforts.

India, the United States and Japan on Monday wrapped up six days of naval exercises, reflecting closer military ties that are seen as a counterweight to growing Chinese influence in the region.

It is the second consecutive year Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) has taken part in the Malabar Exercise, conducted annually by the U.S. and India off the Andamans archipelago in the Bay of Bengal.