SRINAGAR: Indian soldiers killed three suspected militants in a clash on Sunday in India-held Kashmir, the army said.

It alleged that they were killed in Tangdhar, north of Srinagar, after crossing the Line of Control dividing Kashmir.

“Three assault rifles were also recovered from the site of the gun battle,” army spokesman Col N.N. Joshi told AFP.

The army was trying to determine if the men were part of a group that had attacked an Indian ammunition depot in the area on Friday, injuring at least three border guards.

Also in the day, one young man was killed and dozens were wounded in India-held Kashmir as government forces fired shotguns and tear gas at protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in the region. The man was hit by a tear gas shell in his chest during clashes between rock-throwing protesters and government troops in Srinagar, said a police officer. The man died later at a hospital.

At least 70 civilians, including four women, were injured during several clashes in Sopore, Baramulla and Ganderbal that erupted as government forces tried to prevent the villagers from staging protest rallies.

The India-held region has been under curfew since protests erupted over the death last month of a popular young militant leader, Burhan Wani, in a gunfight with security forces.

More than 60 civilians have been killed in clashes between protesters and security personnel, and thousands more injured in the worst violence to hit the region since 2010.

Meanwhile, a senior Indian minister appeared to support police in a row over free speech that saw the Amnesty International slapped with sedition charges for an event about the disputed region.

Police in Bangalore filed the initial charges last week following complaints that slogans for independence for the troubled region had been chanted at the event organised by the rights group.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley compared the freedom slogans to those at another event earlier this year at a prestigious New Delhi university that saw a student leader arrested on sedition charges.

“During an event in Bangalore, there were slogans for freedom (from India)... it was organised by a group that receives a lot of funding from abroad,” Mr Jaitley said at a rally in Jammu.

“In Delhi, there were slogans calling for destruction of the country... raising slogans that advocate breaking the nation into pieces cannot be seen as freedom of speech and expression,” he said.

Mr Jaitley was referring to the rally in February at the university in which slogans were chanted that led to the student’s arrest, sparking a major row over freedom of expression in India.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2016