SRINAGAR, March 14: Troops in occupied Kashmir shot dead five members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in clashes on Saturday, according to police.

Three of the militants were holed up in a mosque in Kishtawar district in occupied Srinagar and were killed after a fierce encounter with security forces, police officer Kuldeep Singh claimed.

The three fled into the mosque when soldiers, backed by counter-insurgency police, began a search operation in a village.

“The mosque is being thoroughly searched to ensure there are no more militants inside,” the police spokesman said.
Two more LeT members were shot dead by security forces later in another gunbattle in north Kashmir, police said.
Officials say more than 47,000 people have been killed since an anti-India insurgency broke out in 1989 in the disputed Himalayan region. Separatists put the toll at nearly 100,000.

But overall violence involving Indian troops and Kashmiri guerrillas has declined significantly across Kashmir since India and Pakistan began a peace process in 2004.—Agencies

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