SRINAGAR: Four pro-independence fighters were killed in a gun battle with troops in India-held Kashmir, including two counterinsurgency police officers who defected to fight Indian forces in the disputed region, police said on Friday.

The fighting erupted late on Thursday after police and soldiers cordoned off a village in southern Pulwama area on a tip that fighters were hiding there. Residents said troops blasted a civilian home with explosives during the gunfight, which continued into Friday morning.

The two policemen were missing since Thursday morning, when they did not report to work after Eidul Fitr. Police said the two had deserted with their rifles and joined the local fighters.

As the news of the military operation spread, protests and clashes broke out with hundreds of people trying to get closer to the site of the fighting and save the trapped fighters.

Indian troops fired shotguns and tear gas to stop the stone-throwing protesters. No one was immediately reported injured in the clashes.

Armed groups have been fighting against Indian control over the disputed Himalayan region since 1989.

Many Kashmiris view police as tools of the Indian government bent upon suppressing widespread demands for the region’s independence or merger with Pakistan.

But still the state police force is one of the largest employers in the region with limited employment opportunities and an economy crippled by decades of conflict.

Many of the police recruits in recent years have been the young men who have participated in civilian uprisings and have also fought pitched street battles with Indian forces, hurling stones and abuse, during anti-India protests. About a dozen policemen have fled with weapons to join Kashmiri fighters in the last two years.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2019