2 Indian troops among 4 killed in Kashmir fighting
SRINAGAR: India’s army said Saturday that two rebels and two soldiers were killed in an overnight gunbattle close to the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, as a curfew continued to be enforced in parts of Indian-held Kashmir.
The shooting erupted Friday night in Nowgam sector after Indian soldiers spotted the insurgents, who they believed infiltrated from the Pakistani side of Kashmir, said Col. Nitin N. Joshi, an army spokesman.
In addition to the four fatalities, an Indian soldier was wounded in the fighting, said Joshi, adding that Indian forces recovered two assault rifles and some ammunition from the rebels.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies. Pakistan says it provides only political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris.
Meanwhile, a curfew was still in effect Saturday in parts of Indian- held Kashmir, with shops closed across the region in response to a separatist call for a shutdown until Sunday amid outrage over the killing of a top rebel leader by Indian troops earlier this month.
Curfew-bound areas included the downtown portion of Srinagar, the region’s main city, and the southern towns of Anantnag and Pampore.
In non-curfew areas, authorities banned the assembly of more than four people to prevent protests.
Doctors and police said more than 100 protesters were injured in clashes with government forces at 70 places across the region on Friday. Angry demonstrators threw stones at the forces, injuring at least 30, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.