SRINAGAR, July 6: Indian troops shot dead two Muslim militants overnight, one of them on a “most wanted” list, while rebels killed a Muslim in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said on Sunday.

India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and police engaged militants in a gunbattle during a cordon and search operation near Tral township, 40 kilometres south of Srinagar late on Saturday.

Two Muslim women who strayed into the cross-fire were injured.

A spokesman identified the militants as Ghulam Mohammad Bhat alias Majeed Tunda and Muddasar Ahmed Bhat, both members of the rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin.

Tunda had served as the group’s battalion commander in the Tral area and had been active since 1989, the year armed struggle in the Himalayan region was launched by the rebels.

Police sources said Tunda was an expert in making mines and had been involved in more than two dozen killings of security force personnel and alleged informers.

He was atop the security force’s list of “most wanted militants” in Tral.

“His death is a major setback to Hizbul in Tral,” the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, suspected rebels overnight shot dead a Muslim in the southern Doda district, and in a separate incident in the same district snatched two rifles from village defence committee members.

More than 38,000 people have died in Kashmir since 1989. Separatists put the toll twice as high.—AFP