JAMMU, Nov 21: Seven people were killed on Friday in the separatist insurgency in Kashmir, including four suspected members of an militant group, officials said.

Four freedom fighters died in a gunbattle set off when soldiers surrounded their hideout at Banihal in the southern Doda district, defence spokesman Col Manjit Singh said.

He claimed that the four slain rebels belonged to Lashkar-i-Taiba, one of two militant groups blamed for a December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.

Singh identified one of the militants as Abu Abrar and said he served as a “divisional commander” for Lashkar.

In the southwestern Poonch district, one rebel and a soldier were killed in a clash near Line of Control (LoC), police said.

Another soldier was killed elsewhere in the Poonch district in an ambush on an army patrol, according to police.—AFP