India: Security forces, rebels killed amid on-going gun battle in Kashmir

News reports said that three Indian security officers were killed in an ongoing gun battle with rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Anantnag district, while another soldier and two rebels killed in a separate gunfight in the border district of Rajouri on Wednesday.

The reports added that an official, who declined to reveal his name, told reporters that three top officials were targeted by the suspected rebels on Wednesday when they were crossing a stream during the search operation.

The gunfight – the second in 24 hours – comes as India’s Hindu nationalist government, which runs the Muslim-majority region from New Delhi, claims that its policies have brought normalcy in Kashmir which has seen decades of armed rebellion.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, both of whom claim the region in its entirety and have fought two of their three full-scale wars over it.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since early 1989 when India deployed the military to quell an armed rebellion that sought to free Kashmir or merge with neighbouring Pakistan.