5 Indian soldiers killed in gunfight with militants in Kashmir

Srinagar: Five Indian soldiers were killed in a fierce gunbattle with militants in the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Monday, officials said, as violence in the region has increased in recent weeks.

Police and soldiers cordoned off a forested area in southern Surankote area following an intelligence report that militants were present there, said Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman.

As troops launched a search operation, militants opened heavy gunfire that critically wounded an army officer and four soldiers, Anand said. They were evacuated to a nearest medical facility but died there, he said.

A reinforcement of soldiers and police was sent to the area, Anand said, adding that the fighting was ongoing.

No militant group has immediately issued any statement.

Monday’s fighting comes amid a sweeping crackdown by government forces in the Kashmir Valley following a string of targeted killings in the region’s main city of Srinagar last week. Police detained over 500 people for questioning after suspected militants shot and killed a prominent Kashmiri Hindu chemist, two schoolteachers of the Hindu and Sikh faiths, and a Hindu street food vendor from India’s eastern state of Bihar.