SRINAGAR: Hundreds of protesters clashed with police on Thursday in India-held Kashmir after two suspected militants opposed to Indian rule died in a gunfight, police and the army said.

Soldiers cordoned off Newa village, some 30 kilometres south of the main city of Srinagar in the morning, triggering a gun battle with the two militants.

Hundreds of villagers poured onto the streets pelting government forces with stones in a bid to help the militants escape, a police officer said, requesting anonymity.

“We had firm intelligence about presence of the militants in the area. Both were killed in the encounter,” said Colonel N. N. Joshi, an army spokesman.

Two police were injured in the clashes as they fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, the officer said.

Several militant groups demanding independence for Kashmir or a merger of the territory with Pakistan have for decades fought hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed in the disputed region.

Increasingly, residents in restive Kashmir have come out in their hundreds in support of militants during frequent gun battles with government forces.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting since 1989.

Last week militants ambushed a convoy carrying Indian paramilitary troops near Srinagar, killing eight and wounding 20. The attack was claimed by Lashkar-i-Taiba, a banned militant group.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2016