SRINAGAR, Jan 17: Suspected militants shot dead two members of a pro-India communist party in occupied Kashmir, while Indian troops killed five militants in two separate gunbattles, police and the army said on Tuesday.

Police said Gulzar Ahmed and Bashir Reshi, two functionaries of the Communist Party of India (CPI), were gunned down in separate incidents in the Kulgam area of the southern district of Anantnag on Monday.

Another communist activist was shot and wounded in the same area.

Mr Ahmed is the nephew of Yusuf Tarigami, the state head of the CPI.

In district Pulwama Indian troops shot dead five militants in two separate encounters on Tuesday, an army spokesman said. Two of the militants were hiding inside the house of a municipal councillor from the state’s ruling Congress party.

“Both of them have been eliminated in a swift operation launched by the troops of the National Rifles,” said Indian army spokesman Vijay Batra, referring to the army’s counter-insurgency wing.

He identified one of them as Saifullah, who was serving as “battalion commander” of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

Mr Batra said another three militants were killed early Tuesday when troops ambushed them after receiving a tip-off.

“The three were recently involved in snatching weapons from local police,” the spokesman said.—AFP