TROOPS KILL FIVE MILITANTS, HINDUS FLEE VIOLENCE

SRINAGAR Indian security forces killed at least five militants in Indian-ruled Kashmir on Tuesday as hundreds of Hindus flee the disputed Muslim-majority region after a wave of violence, officials said.

Three Hindus and a Sikh were killed by suspected militants in Kashmir last week, prompting a police crackdown on what they said was the targeting of religious minorities.

At least five Indian soldiers and two militants were killed on Monday in a series of gun battles in Kashmir.

The Himalayan region is claimed in full but ruled only in part by nuclear-armed neighbours India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

In two gun battles in southern Kashmir on Tuesday, troops killed five suspected militants, including one connected to a killing of a Hindu in the region’s main city of Srinagar, police said.

The violence has driven hundreds of Kashmiri Hindus out of the valley.