Five killed in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Indian security forces in Kashmir clashed with suspected militants killing three men on Monday while seven civilians were injured in a separate militant attack that missed its apparent target and instead hit passers-by, police said.

Security forces raided the Laktipora village on receiving a tip-off that the militants were hiding there. That triggered a gunbattle which left three unidentified militants dead, said Col RK Sen, the army spokesman. There were no army casualties, Sen said.

In a separate attack hours earlier on Monday outside the nearby Bijbehara town, suspected militants lobbed a grenade onto a key highway that connects the held Kashmir with the rest of the country, injuring seven civilians, police said. Three women were among those hurt in the blast, which missed its target – an Indian army convoy – and instead hit passers-by near Bijbehara, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, militants ambushed an Indian border guard patrol in Kashmir, killing two soldiers and wounding nine. A police spokesman said separatist militants attacked the Border Security Force patrol late on Sunday in Rajouri district, southwest of Srinagar. A hard-line pro-Pakistan militant group, the Jamaitul Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attack. Also on Monday, a woman who was injured in a grenade explosion on Sunday in Srinagar died in a local hospital, police said. She and four other civilian passers-by were hurt when suspected rebels threw a hand grenade at paramilitary soldiers patrolling a neighbourhood. agencies

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