Indian troops on Sunday claimed to kill five fighters, reportedly including a top commander from the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group, in stepped-up anti-militancy operations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), police said.

The fighters were killed in two separate overnight operations by Indian troops south of Srinagar, Kashmir Police chief Vijay Kumar told Reuters.

“We had launched two separate operations on the basis of inputs about the presence of militants in these areas last night. Five militants, including JeM commander, Zahid Wani, and a Pakistani national, Kafeel, were killed in these two operations,” Kumar claimed.

A police officer was shot to death by fighters outside his residence Saturday evening in the south of Srinagar, Kumar said.

In January, 21 fighters have been killed across IIOJK, according to police.

Last year, the region witnessed a wave of civilian killings, with fighters seemingly targeting non-Kashmiris, including migrant workers, and members of the minority Hindu and Sikh communities in the Muslim-majority valley.

Indian forces in the heavily militarised region responded with a widespread crackdown.

More than 189 Kashmiri fighters were killed last year, a police official said.

Pakistan condemns 'extra-judicial killings'

Meanwhile, Pakistan strongly condemned the extra-judicial killings and reiterated its call for international accountability of Indian occupation forces, Radio Pakistan reported.

The report quoted Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad as saying that Indian occupation forces had martyred at least 23 Kashmiris in fake encounters and so-called cordon-and-search operations in the month of January alone.

"Driven by the far-right extremist Hindutva ideology that provokes and condones genocide of Muslims, the Indian forces are relentlessly targeting the Kashmiris, especially youth, in the occupied territory," he said.

The spokesperson said the international community must act to stop this wanton oppression and persecution of the besieged Kashmiris under illegal occupation, the report added.