Three freedom fighters martyred in occupied Kashmir

Indian cop also killed in the gunbattle near the Khanqah-e-Moula shrine; protests held in the disputed valley

NEW DEHLI: A firefight near a 14th century Muslim shrine in Indian occupied Kashmir on Wednesday left three freedom fighters martyred, which sparked protests in the Himalayan region.

A police officer was also killed in the gunbattle near the Khanqah-e-Moula shrine, a tourist draw in Srinagar's Old City.

The clash triggered a showdown between protesters and occupying forces, who fired tear gas at stone-throwing demonstrators shouting anti-India slogans.

Shops and schools shut as news of the deaths spread, and internet services were suspended across the city.



Indian forces cordoned off the Fateh Kadal locality, close to the shrine, after they received information about armed militants hiding in a house, a police statement said.

Witnesses said the gunfire broke out after soldiers knocked at the door of a house and took away a young Kashmiri.

"We don't know where he is and now we hear [police] say he was a militant," the young man's brother Asif Nabi told reporters outside his home, which was burned down in the clash.

Police rejected this version of events saying that the man, though not known earlier to authorities, refused to leave the house when given the opportunity.

"Instead, he picked up a weapon and opened fire on troops there, and consequently was killed," inspector general of police Swayam Prakash Pani said.



As the firefight wound down, officers turned on journalists reporting at the site of the encounter, injuring at least one reporter and two cameramen.

"They [police] just lunged at us and started beating us with sticks and then fired in the air. The empty cartridges hit my head," Asif Qureshi, a journalist with an Indian news station, said.

Earlier this month, suspected freedom fighters shot dead two activists from a pro-India political group near the scene of Wednesday's shootout.

India has some 500,000 troops deployed in held Kashmir, where people demand independence or a merger with Pakistan.