Agencies/Srinagar
Government forces in Kashmir killed three suspected rebels yesterday during a lengthy gun battle, police said, in the latest flare-up ahead of tense local elections later this year.
Soldiers cordoned off a house in Hanjan village, some 40km south of the main city of Srinagar, yesterday evening after receiving a tip-off that militants were inside, a police officer said.
The rebels then opened fire, sparking armed exchanges which went on till early morning, the officer, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said.
“All the three militants died during the gun battle,” he added.
Another police officer, Vijay Kumar, told reporters that all three of the victims were local men.
Since 1989 fighting between about a dozen rebels groups and Indian forces has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians dead.
The latest fighting happened after multiple clashes between suspected rebels and government forces last week left five of them and three soldiers dead in the north of the state near the de facto border with Pakistan known as the Line of Control or LoC.
A report on Sunday in a local daily Greater Kashmir, quoting an unnamed federal interior ministry official in New Delhi, said 60 militants have “infiltrated” this year into Kashmir from across the LoC.
The official said the government forces were cautioned about a “likely spurt in militant actions in the coming months” as the territory is gearing up for state elections expected in November or December.
Meanwhile, the army said it unearthed an unfinished underground tunnel across the LoC that was meant to push militants into India.
The discovery was made in Akhnoor sector, a military spokesman said.
“Having failed to infiltrate terrorists across Jammu division, there was an attempt to construct a tunnel across the LoC,” the spokesman said.
“Alert soldiers in Akhnoor thwarted the nefarious designs of the terrorists by discovering the tunnel before it could be completed,” he added.
The Border Security Force (BSF) discovered a similar underground tunnel on the international border in Jammu district last month.
The army guards the LoC while the BSF is deployed along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.
Soldiers fire towards a house in which militants were holed up in Rajpora area of Pulwama, south of Srinagar yesterday.
