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Six Indian Policemen, Two Militants Killed in Kashmir
Six Indian policemen and two militants were killed Tuesday, December 5, in a 22-hour-long gunfight which followed a suicide attack Monday evening by two militants against a camp of Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Anantnag district of India-controlled Kashmir, the Press Trust of India ( PTI) reported.
Five CRPF men and two militants were killed and six other CRPF personnel and a soldier of the Indian army were injured in the encounter which resumed early Tuesday after a night-long lull, PTI quoted an official spokesman in the area as saying.
Earlier reports said two policemen were killed in the continuous encounter with militants inside the police camp in south Kashmir.
One militant and one Indian reserve policeman died and another three were injured Monday evening after two militants stormed the camp located in a defunct cinema hall.
Although firing stopped after over an hour, PTI said, it broke out again Tuesday morning when security forces, who had laid siege around the camp from outside, closed in to flush out the militants.
Indian security personnel entered the building where the holed-up militant had taken shelter on top of the multi-storied cinema, restricting movement of the CRPF men trapped inside, the spokesman said.
The militant, after stiff resistance, was gunned down at around 3 p.m. Tuesday, ending the 22-hour gunbattle, he added.
Meanwhile, the Indian army deployed in north Kashmir foiled another suicide attack in the frontier district of Kupwara late Monday night, killing one of two militants, PTI said.
Despite the fighting, Indian police chief in Kashmir A. K. Suri admitted that militant violence in the region declined significantly during the ongoing cease-fire, which had raised new hope for an early return of peace in the disputed area.
Last month, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced a cease-fire in Kashmir during the holy month of Ramadan and Pakistan also announced a truce along the line of control in Kashmir and ordered its forces deployed along the border to observe maximum restraint.
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