Twelve-year-old boy among six killed in Kashmir clashes
The boy was kept hostage by militants, police say
SRINAGAR: A 12-year-old boy was among six people killed in three separate gun battles between militants and security forces in Jammu & Kashmir, the police and army said Friday.
Clashes have raged in the restive mountainous region since the deaths of 49 Indian troopers in a suicide bombing last month provoked tit-for-tat air strikes between India and Pakistan.
The boy was killed after militants were trapped in his home in the northern town of Hajin and engaged in a two-day gun battle ending Friday, police told AFP. His father escaped.
Police later claimed the boy was “kept hostage” by the militants.
“Despite repeated requests by community members and police for his release, he was brutally killed by the terrorists,” a police statement said, referring to the two killed militants identified as Pakistani nationals.
Two more militants were “eliminated” late Thursday in the frontier district of Baramulla, Kalia added, while one soldier and two policemen were injured.
Another militant died in a clash with soldiers in the south of the Kashmir Valley, army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.
At least a dozen villagers were wounded when government forces clashed with protesters near the site of the fighting, firing metal pellets and live bullets to push them back.
Three of the villagers were taken to hospital in Srinagar and were in critical condition, a local police officer and hospital sources said.
Entire neighbourhoods in Kashmir often march towards sites of gun battles between militants and government forces, attempting to rescue militants.
Scores of civilians have died during such clashes.
— AFP