Troops kill suspected rebels during nine-hour gunbattle

(21 Oct 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of journalists running for cover as gun battle starts, AUDIO: gunfire
2. Indian Army vehicle, soldiers in background
3. Soldier on the ground, shooting, then rolling for cover
4. Various of soldiers shooting
5. Wide of a house in which suspected Muslim rebels were hiding, the roof hit by a bullet
6. Various of soldiers firing
7. Women and children running for cover
8. Military helicopter flying over the village
9. Soldiers running towards a van
STORYLINE
Police say Indian troops have killed two suspected rebels in a nine-hour gunbattle in a village in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
An army spokesman said soldiers and police cordoned off a portion of Maloora, a village on the outskirts of the region's main city, Srinagar,
following intelligence that suspected rebels were hiding in a home there.
One suspected militant later fled to another home.
Brar said troops escorted hundreds of civilians out of Maloora as the suspected rebels fired automatic weapons at government forces.
As the fighting intensified, police and army reinforcements sealed off the area.
Brar said soldiers blasted the house with explosive and later the bodies of two suspected rebels were recovered from the rubble.
He said government forces suffered no casualties.
Suspected rebels also fired toward a military helicopter flying low in the area without causing any damage, a police officer said on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the disputed Muslim-majority region, where rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with neighbouring Pakistan since 1989.
While rebellions by insurgent groups have largely been suppressed by Indian forces, the resistance is now principally through street
demonstrations.
On Thursday, shops and businesses were shut and public transport was halted in most parts of the region after separatists called for a strike
against Indian rule.
Since June, the region has been rocked by violent anti-India protests and subsequent crackdowns by government forces that have killed at least 111 people, mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s.
Authorities have imposed off-and-on curfews in an attempt to stop the protests.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars for control of the region.
More than 68-thousand people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the militant uprising and the subsequent Indian crackdown.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...