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SRINAGAR: Two militants were killed in India-held Kashmir on Sunday following an intense gun battle with government forces at a school, police said.
Militants had ambushed a paramilitary police patrol on Saturday evening, killing one trooper and injuring two others in a hail of bullets, before fleeing into the nearby school on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Police and soldiers surrounded the school as the militants continued firing on them, according to Muneer Ahmed Khan, inspector general of police in Kashmir.
“The battle is over. Two militants have been killed,” Director General of Police S.P. Vaid said. He claimed that neither of the dead men were locals and police only knew their code names.
This year’s Ramazan was a particularly bloody month for the disputed Himalayan region. Fifty-one people were killed in the restive region, according to Khurram Parvez of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, which monitors conflict-related deaths.
Among the dead was a policeman beaten to death by an angry mob outside a mosque on Thursday. Earlier that day, a civilian was killed and several wounded when troops opened fire on a crowd gathered for the funeral of three militants slain by Indian soldiers.
A week earlier, six officers were ambushed and killed by suspected militants.
Civilian toll
The conflict in the disputed region has increasingly drawn in civilians, most of whom oppose Indian rule. Whole communities sometimes come out to throw stones at government forces as they fight militants.
On Saturday, as troops battled the militants in the latest clash, civilians rushed to the scene, chanting anti-Indian slogans and hurling rocks at the soldiers.
Authorities had barred people from coming within five kilometres of Saturday’s shooting, and blocked the highway connecting Srinagar with the restive Kashmir Valley to the south.
Clashes between government forces and civilians have worsened in the disputed region since the death of the hugely popular militant commander last July.
The anniversary of Burhan Wani’s death next month is expected to bring more violence.
India last week deployed two additional army battalions to troubled regions in the southern Kashmir area, the Press Trust of India reported. Officials say dozens of young men have joined militant ranks since security forces killed Wani, a charismatic and media savvy commander.
Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2017
