Hundreds of protesters clashed with police Thursday in Indian-administered Kashmir after two suspected insurgents opposed to Indian rule died in a gunfight, police and the army said.
Soldiers cordoned off Newa village, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar in the morning, triggering a gun battle with the two militants.
Hundreds of villagers poured onto the streets pelting government forces with stones in a bid to help the militants escape, a police officer said, requesting anonymity.
“We had firm intelligence about presence of the militants in the area. Both were killed in the encounter,” Col. N. N. Joshi, an army spokesman, told AFP.
Two police were injured in the clashes as they fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, the officer said.
Both India and Pakistan claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety since it was partitioned between the rivals in 1947.
Several rebel groups demanding independence for Kashmir or a merger of the territory with Pakistan have for decades fought hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed in the disputed region.
Increasingly, residents in restive Kashmir have come out in their hundreds in support of rebels during frequent gun battles with government forces.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting since 1989.

Source: Arab News