SRINAGAR, Dec 1: At least 22 people were killed in clashes in occupied Kashmir on Saturday and Friday night, police said.

Unidentified men disguised as policemen killed six people in Udhampur district, including four belonging to a village defence committee, police said.

The men in police uniform went to a village 150kms from occupied Jammu and sought help, saying they wished to ambush freedom fighters.

Four Hindu village defence committee members and two Muslim villagers who went to help the attackers were taken to a jungle area and killed, police said.

Police have launched search and rescue operations in the hilly forested area, but so far have failed to arrest any of the assailants.

At Sonamulla village, in Kupwara district, Indian army soldiers and police shot dead three freedom fighters on Friday night. One of the slain was identified as Ibrahim, a self-styled divisional commander of the Al-Badr group.

Indian forces claimed killing four Mujahideen at the villages of Dub Magam and Machil, in Kupwara, on Friday evening, police said.

Two more Mujahideen were shot dead in the districts of Anantnag and Pulwama overnight, police said.

Six more people, four of them Mujahideen, were killed elsewhere in held Kashmir on Friday evening or Saturday, police said.

EXPLOSION: At least 41 people, including two policemen, were injured in a grenade explosion in occupied Kashmir on Saturday.

Police said the Mujahideen hurled a hand grenade at a patrol of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) at Bandipora township, 60kms north of Srinagar.—AFP