SRINAGAR, Jan 29 (2002): Indian security forces battled suspected separatists in the streets of the summer capital of contested Kashmir on Tuesday, police said.
The long gunbattle began late on Monday night when militants holed up inside a home in a residential suburb of Srinagar clashed with paramilitary forces, injuring three soldiers.
“Security forces exercised restraint during the night because three inmates of the house were inside the building. Now all the family members have come out,” one policeman said.
“A fierce encounter is continuing.”
No further details were available.
In October, 38 people died in a suicide bomb attack on the state assembly in the city. About a dozen Pakistan-baed Islamic groups are fighting India’s rule in Kashmir, the mainly Hindu nation’s only Muslim-majority state.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training separatists, a charge Islamabad denies. Both sides are locked in a military stand-off over the issue, raising fears of a fourth war between the nuclear powers.
