Clashes after 3 militants killed in Indian Kashmir
Srinagar, India - Thousands of protesters clashed with government forces in India’s Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday after three militants were killed in a firefight with troops, police said, with tensions already high following the death of a militant commander this week.
Soldiers and police officials from the special counter-insurgency forces surrounded a neighbourhood in Sopore town, 45km northwest of Srinagar, the capital of the northern Indian state, after ‘specific information’ that militants were hiding in a house there, triggering a firefight.
‘During the encounter three militants of LeT (Lashkar-eTaiba) were eliminated’, a police statement said, adding that three automatic assault rifles were recovered from the site of the clash.
As news of the deaths spread, clashes between local residents and government forces broke out in many areas.
Three protesters were injured in the northern Bandipore area, home to one of the slain mili- tants, when soldiers fired bullets as hundreds of angry local residents came out on the streets to pelt their convoy with stones, a police officer said.
In southern Kashmir valley thousands of protesters clashed with government forces who fired bullets in the air and used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
Saturday’s clash comes a day after a local armed militant and a civilian were killed by soldiers during a shootout in Bijbehara area in the south of the restive territory where such clashes have become frequent since the start of the year.
Tensions have spiked across the Indian territory since government forces killed a popular militant commander of LeT group, Abu Dujana, in a fierce gunbattle on Tuesday.