SRINAGAR: A 70-year-old civilian was killed and seven other people were injured during an anti-India protest that erupted on Thursday following a gun battle that killed three military personnel and two militants in India-held Kashmir, sources said.

A group of militants stormed a military camp close to the heavily militarised Line of Control dividing the disputed Himalayan region, army spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said.

The militants hurled grenades and fired automatic weapons at the highly guarded camp in Panzgam, northwest of Srinagar, a police officer said.

A 70-year-old man dies as security personnel open fire on protesters

Two militants were killed in an ensuing gunfight, while another was believed to have escaped, the officer said.

He said three security personnel, including an army officer, were killed and five soldiers wounded in the attack. The injured soldiers were airlifted to the Indian army’s main base in Srinagar for treatment.

No militant group fighting against Indian rule in the region immediately issued any statement about the attack.

However, scores of villagers assembled outside the army camp in Panzgam in solidarity with the militants and chanted pro-freedom slogans and demanded that bodies of the slain militants be handed over to them for their last rites, the police officer said.

He said soldiers fired at the protesters after they hurled rocks at an army vehicle leaving the camp. A 70-year-old man was killed and at least seven others wounded in the firing, he said.

Villagers said the slain man was not part of the protest and was hit by a bullet in the chest.

In another protest, hundreds of villagers took to the streets a few kilometres from the site of the gun battle and hurled rocks at police and paramilitary soldiers, who fired tear gas and warning shots to break up the demonstration. No one was reported injured in those clashes.

Incidents involving civilian unrest following army operations against militants have been rising, in what many analysts see as a sign of growing resentment in the disputed region.

Clashes between militants and government forces have become more frequent since the killing of a popular militant commander, Burhan Wani, by Indian forces last July. Most people in occupied Kashmir favour independence or a merger with Pakistan. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed since 1989 in an uprising and the subsequent Indian military crackdown in the region.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2017