Fifteen Muslim militants, two policemen and a civilian were killed in encounters in Indian Kashmir, police said Tuesday, as military officials reported fresh cross-border shelling by Pakistan.
Police said soldiers and police counter-insurgency units shot dead eight militants, most of them Pakistanis, in three separate overnight incidents in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch. Four soldiers were also injured.
"One of the encounters broke out near the Line of Control (LoC)," a police spokesman said, referring to the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Five more militants were killed Tuesday in the Bafliaz area of Poonch by Indian security forces, police said.
Two more militants were killed overnight in northern Kupwara district, one of them near the LoC, police said.
Elsewhere, two policemen were shot dead by Muslim militants.
One civilian was killed and seven others, including three Indian border guards, injured in a bomb blast on the outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital on Tuesday -- SRINAGAR, India (AFP)
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