Indian troops kill 3 suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India — Three suspected militants were killed Saturday in separate gunbattles in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday.

India’s military in a statement said soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a gunbattle that killed two rebels.

In a separate incident in the disputed region’s main city of Srinagar, police and paramilitary soldiers killed a militant in an exchange of gunfire after troops cordoned off a neighborhood on a tip that he was hiding in a house. Police said two soldiers and two police were injured in the fighting.

Residents said the troops torched the home where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic employed by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.