Zahid Rafiq
14 June 2019•Update: 14 June 2019
SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir
Two militants were killed in a gunfight in the southern part of Indian-administered Kashmir on Friday morning, police said.
In an official statement, police said the incident occurred in the Braw Bandina village, the Awantipora area. They were informed about the presence of the militants in the village prior to the gun battle.
The police are on a mission to identify the militants killed, and to find their affiliations, the statement added.
The killings happened two days after five paramilitary personnel were killed in a militant attack in the Anantnag district, Kashmir's south.
The killings also came on a day when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit is being held in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, with the attendance of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Internet was interrupted in the south of Kashmir soon after the militant killings as people took to the streets at various places, chanting slogans for independence and pelting the heavily armed Indian forces with stones.
Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.
Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.
Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.
Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.
