Seven civilians martyred as gunfight sparks protests in IoK

SRINAGAR: Seven civilians were martyred as Indian troops opened fire on protesters Saturday after a gunfight left three persons and a soldier dead in the Indian-occupied Kashmir, police and hospital officials said.

The fighting erupted soon after Indian troops laid siege to a house in the southern Pulwama area in where the freedom fighters were hiding, a police officer said.

Three persons -- including a former soldier -- were martyred in the fighting, which also left a member of the security forces dead, senior police officer Swayam Prakash Pani told AFP.



While the gunfight was in progress, hundreds of villagers poured out on to the streets in freezing cold and marched towards the house, shouting slogans in support of the freedom fighters and throwing stones at the troops, witnesses said.

"It was mayhem. Six protesters died in the ensuing firing by soldiers," a police officer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Hospital officials said a seventh man died later of bullet injuries.



Saturday's bloodshed capped the deadliest year in the region since 2009, with nearly 550 killed so far including some 150 civilians, according to a monitoring group.

Popular support for the cause has increased since the killing of Burhan Wani, a charismatic Kashmiri freedom fighter in 2016. Villagers, sometimes in their thousands, have been swarming sites of gun battles with government forces to help freedom fighters escape from military cordons.