Militants killed by Indian soldiers in Kashmir gun battle
Police also exchanged fire with another militant in a separate incident in the city of Srinagar.
Three suspected militants have been killed in a gunfight with government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said, while troops also exchanged fire in the disputed region’s main city.
India’s military said soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a gun battle that killed two rebels.
In a separate incident in the region’s main city of Srinagar, police and paramilitary soldiers exchanged fire with and killed a militant after troops cordoned off an area on a tip that he was hiding in a house. Two soldiers and two police were also injured in the fighting.
Residents said the troops torched the home where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic employed by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989.
Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
Pakistan denies the charge and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.
Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
