SRINAGAR, India – Police say a soldier, a counterinsurgency police official and a rebel have been killed in a gunfight in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Police say the fighting began early Tuesday when militants attacked raiding government forces with gunfire in a forest in the southern Tral area.
Authorities rushed reinforcements of police and soldiers and cordoned off the area.
As news of the fighting spread, anti-India protests and clashes erupted in Tral town. Scores of youths, mainly students, hit roads and pelted stones on patrol parties of police and paramilitary soldiers in solidarity with the rebels.
India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim it in its entirety.
Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989, demanding Kashmir be made part of Pakistan or become an independent country.