SRINAGAR, May 12: Four Indian policemen, a marine commando and a freedom fighter were killed and 11 people injured in three attacks in occupied Kashmir on Monday, including two on police guarding banks, officials said.

Police said militants fired at a group from the Central Reserve Police Force in the main market of Kupwara, killing two policemen.

The Indian forces returned fire, killing a militant, a police spokesman said.

He said four policemen, two army soldiers and one shopkeeper were injured in the 15-minute shootout near Kupwara’s branch of the State Bank of India.

“The entire area has been sealed and searches launched to arrest the remaining militants in the area,” the spokesman said.

In a similar incident around the same time, militants attacked police stationed outside a bank in Shopian, 50kms south of Srinagar, killing two policemen and injuring three civilians, police said.

In another incident, a marine commando from Indian navy was killed and an Indian army soldier injured in an ambush by militants in the village of Nasu, near Bandipora township, 60kms north of Srinagar.

A small group of marine commandos have been posted in the northern region of the held state since the early 1990s to help carry out operations against militants in water bodies, in particular Lake Wular. —AFP