SRINAGAR, July 27: Indian soldiers in occupied Kashmir shot dead five suspected militants in three separate gun battles, police said on Friday. The killings marked the latest flare-up of violence in a nearly two-decade-old campaign against New Delhi’s rule in the region.

“Soldiers shot dead Mushtaq Ahmad and Mohammad Shafi, both members of Hizbul Mujahideen” just south of Srinagar on Friday, a senior police official claimed.

Hizbul Mujahideen, the biggest group fighting for secession, wants to fold the region into neighbouring Pakistan.

“The militants were killed in a fierce gun battle,” the official said.

Troops also killed another militant in a shootout nearby on Friday, police added.

Two other militants belonging to the Jaish-i-Mohammad rebel movement were killed in a shootout overnight, police said.—AFP