Battle continues, death toll hits 6

A third soldier was killed yesterday in an ongoing gunbattle between militants and troops and police in Indian Kashmir, taking the overall death toll to six, police said.

Javaid Gillani, inspector general of police for the region, told AFP a second army captain was killed during the clashes that have lasted more than 24 hours.

Exchanges of fire stopped as darkness fell but the firefight is set to enter a third day.

The attackers, thought to number three or four, ambushed a paramilitary convoy on the outskirts of the restive region's main city of Srinagar on Saturday, killing two soldiers and wounding another 13, officials have said.

The militants, who are fighting against Indian rule over the disputed Himalayan region, then fled to a nearby government building and forced more than 120 trainees and staff inside to leave.

Fresh firing erupted yesterday morning after the Central Reserve Police Force and soldiers surrounded the training institute overnight, with the militants still holed up inside.

An army captain and another soldier were killed earlier in the day as government forces tried to storm the building, Indian army spokesman NN Joshi said. Police said a civilian gardener injured during the initial crossfire also died.

Witnesses said the heavily armed militants had told students and staff at the government-run Entrepreneurship Development Institute to leave immediately on Saturday and "save themselves".

As the gunbattle raged, hundreds of nearby residents came out on the streets in a show of support for the rebels, throwing stones at government forces who fired tear gas to disperse them, said Central Reserve Police Force spokesman Bhavesh Chaudhary.

A police officer said on condition of anonymity that at least three protesters were injured by tear gas canisters.

Since 1989 several rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces deployed in the Kashmir region, seeking either independence or a merger of the territory with neighbouring Pakistan. The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.