Two Indian troops among eight killed in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, two Indian troops were shot dead and three Kashmiri martyred in different incidents.

According to Kashmir Media Service, two Indian troops were shot dead in Srinagar on Friday evening. The attackers fired on the troops at a busy market in Batmaloo locality of the city, killing them on the spot. Besides, the Indian troops killed three more Kashmiris in fresh acts of violence. Two were shot dead in a forest area of Bandipora, while another civilian was gunned down at Chattar Naar, in the same area. Unidentified gunmen also shot dead a peon of the office of the Sub Divisional Magistrate, in Bhaderwa, in Doda district. Task Force Officer Harvinder Singh shot himself dead with his service pistol while on duty at Humhaama camp, in Budgam district.

Meanwhile, furious anti-India demonstrations were held in Shopian against the recent killing of 8 Kashmiris by Indian troops. The troops resorted to excessive tear gassing, heavy baton charge and even aerial firing, injuring several demonstrators. Indian police arrested two Muslim policemen, including an officer for their involvement in two attacks by militant suicide squads in Kashmir, a police officer said on Sunday. He said Ghulam Rasool, the head of the police station in the Sogam area of Kupwara district, was arrested this week along with one of his constables. The officer said the two policemen were involved with suicide squad militants who launched two attacks in the district, one on May 12 in which two security force personnel died, and another on a police station on June 3.

AFP adds: Suspected Muslim militants shot dead six people including four Hindus and two Muslims in a series of overnight attacks in Indian Kashmir, a police spokesman said on Sunday.

He said suspected militants shot dead a Hindu civilian in Chanama village in the Billawar area of southern Kashmir’s Kathua district late Saturday evening. Later, three other Hindus were kidnapped from the neighbouring Raya Sayal village overnight, and shot dead early Sunday. Security forces launched searches, but have not arrested anyone. In a further attack, suspected rebels barged into the house of a Muslim woman in Machipora village in the state’s northern Kupwara district and shot her dead, police said, adding her son also sustained injuries. Also, a Muslim youth was strangled to death by suspected rebels in the village of Wanigam, Kreeri in Baramulla district overnight, police spokesman said.

Meanwhile, police said Indian troops shot dead two militants along the Line of Control — the de facto border dividing Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir — in the Kupwara district. This was the sixth attempt by militants to enter Kupwara from Pakistan-administered Kashmir in less than a month, they added.

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