Three suspected militants were killed in separate gun battles in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday, officials said Saturday.
The Indian army said in a statement that soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in the southern Anantnag district on Saturday, sparking a shootout that killed two rebels.
In another incident in Srinagar, the main city of the disputed region, police and paramilitary soldiers killed a militant in an exchange of fire after troops cordoned off a neighborhood knowing that he was hiding in a house. Police said two soldiers and two police officers were injured in the fighting.
Residents said troops set fire to the house where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic employed by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There has been no independent confirmation of the incident.
India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the entire territory. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over territory since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Militants in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s regime since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of unifying the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists that Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the accusation and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
