Indian troops kill three suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India – Three suspected militants were killed in separate gunfights in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday, officials said Saturday.

The Indian military said in a statement that soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forest area in the southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a shootout that killed two rebels.

In a separate incident in the disputed regional capital Srinagar, police and paramilitary soldiers killed a militant in a shootout after troops cordoned off a neighborhood on a tip that he was hiding in a house.

Local residents said the troops set fire to the house where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic used by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

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

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

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