5 rebels killed, 23 injured in fresh Kashmir violence

An injured Kashmiri woman cries as she is carried out of an ambulance upon arrival at a Srinagar hospital following a grenade attack in Bijbehara, some 40 kilometres South of Srinagar, yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Three of the rebels were killed when they entered the Indian zone of disputed Kashmir in Karnah sector of northern Kupwara district overnight, a police spokesman said in Srinagar, the Kashmiri summer capital.

Another two militants were killed during an encounter with counter-insurgency troops inside Kupwara district overnight, police said.

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Meanwhile, 22 civilians and a policeman were injured when a grenade hurled by suspected militants at a passing security patrol in southern Bijbehara town Wednesday missed the target and exploded among a crowd of pedestrians, police said.

"Seven of the injured are critical," a police spokesman said.

The killings along the Line of Control (LoC) came ahead of a visit to the de facto border Wednesday by a six-member delegation of European Union parliamentarians.

"They have left for the LoC this morning where they will be appraised of the latest situation by field commanders," Indian army spokesman Colonel Mukhtair Singh told AFP.

During their three-day stay in the region, the team will be meeting separatists, officials and members of civil society.

Last week five militants were killed along the LoC in Kupwara district when they infiltrated into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani zone of the scenic region.

"By killing three more militants along the Line of Control another attempt by militants to infiltrate into our side has been foiled," the police spokesman said.

Infiltration has come down marginally since India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire in November last year and began fencing the border.

This year troops have foiled 20 attempts by rebels to cross into Indian Kashmir, killing some 50 rebels, the military says.

Islamic rebels are fighting to secede Kashmir from India and join it with neighbouring Pakistan or remain independent.

More than 40,000 people have died since the beginning of a 15-year-old anti-Indian insurgency in the region. Separatists put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000.