SRINAGAR, India — Indian forces Friday killed two suspected rebels in a gunbattle and wounded seven civilians later during anti-India protests in southern Kashmir, police said.
Two army officers and one policeman were injured in the fighting in Chandigam, a village 30 miles south of Srinagar, the main city in the Indian portion of Kashmir, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
A police statement said those killed were Kashmiri cadres of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based rebel group that New Delhi accuses of staging a string of deadly attacks on India’s financial capital of Mumbai — formerly Bombay — in 2008. There was no independent account of the fighting and no rebel group has claimed involvement so far.
After the gunbattle, hundreds of villagers took to the streets chanting, “We want freedom” and “Go India, go back,” protesting government forces besieging them.
The police statement said officers shot and wounded seven civilians in the crowd after protesters threw rocks at police. Those injured were hospitalized, but their conditions were not available.
The protest spread to neighboring Pulwama town, which was put under curfew.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/29/2012