India ended a six-month military cease-fire against Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir on Wednesday

India ended a six-month military cease-fire against Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir on Wednesday, but it also invited Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf to peace talks aimed at ending five decades of hostility there, Indian media reported. India's defense minister, Jaswant Singh, told reporters the cease-fire "is now over," the news agency Press Trust of India said. "These terrorist groups have hindered the restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir and have inflicted misery upon people of that state. Hereafter, security forces shall take such action against terrorists as they judge best," PTI quoted Singh as saying. The independent television station Star News carried a similar report. In February 1999, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India had visited Lahore, Pakistan, on a peace mission, and he and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan had signed the Lahore declaration, saying they would pursue peace. In November 2000, Vajpayee began the unilateral cease-fire in Kashmir during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan in an attempt to get Islamic separatists to talk peace after a decade-old rebellion against India had left more than 30,000 people dead. But widespread fighting continued between Indian forces and the guerrillas in Jammu-Kashmir, a state claimed by both countries but controlled by India. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, a territory that was divided between them. In January, a thaw seemed to begin in India-Pakistan relations when Musharraf sent planeloads of food and relief supplies to the victims of India's worst earthquake in 50 years in its western Gujarat state.