SRINAGAR, India: Seven civilians died and dozens were injured when Indian security forces opened fire at people protesting the killing of three militants in a gun battle in restive Kashmir on Saturday, police said. Soldiers from Indian Army’s 55 Rashtriya Rifles unit along with Jawans from 182nd and 183rd battalion of CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police have launched a cordon and search operation in Kharpora Sirnoo village in Pulwama district in South Kashmir, some 40 kilometers away from summer capital Srinagar following a tip off that led to this encounter. A senior police officer, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said large numbers of local people then gathered at the site, leading to clashes between them and security forces in which seven people were killed and about 50 injured. India and Pakistan both rule the region in part but claim it in full. “Bullets and pellets rain,” its chairman, Mirwaiz Omar, posted on Twitter, adding that supporters would march toward an army cantonment on Monday so that the Indian government could “kill all of us at one time rather than killing us daily.”

The authorities have suspended train services in the Kashmir Valley and shut down mobile internet services to try to prevent the unrest from spreading.
Indian soldiers and counterinsurgency police exchange gunfire with militants in the southern district of Pulwama, resulting in the deaths of one soldier and three militants. The soldiers then opened fire on a crowd of anti-government protesters who gathered after the battle, killing seven civilians and injuring 40 others.