SRINAGAR, Nov. 3, 2017 (BSS/XINHUA) – Two Indian army troops and a militant were killed in an overnight gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said Friday.
The gunfight broke out late Thursday evening after contingents of troops and police cordoned off village Samboora in Pulwama district, 28 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
“Last evening contingents of police and army on a specific intelligence information cordoned the village Samboora, during which a gunfight broke out,” the region’s police chief Shesh Paul Vaid told media. “In the gunfight we have lost two of our soldiers and have killed one militant.”
Police officials said two more militants believed to be present in the village managed to break the cordon and escaped.
Reports said a paramilitary trooper was also wounded while fighting militants.
The identity of the slain militant was being ascertained. Preliminary reports suggest he is a foreign national.
A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhi’s rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.
Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.