Gunbattle between troops, militants in Indian Kashmir ends

SRINAGAR, India – Government troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed two gunmen Tuesday, ending a daylong attack near a paramilitary camp, police said.

S.P. Vaid, the top police official in the disputed region, said one soldier was also killed in the clash.

Vaid said government troops were still combing the area where the gunbattle took place in the region’s main city, Srinagar.

The attack began a day after government troops ended a two-day standoff with gunmen at an army camp near Jammu city. That attack left five soldiers and one civilian dead.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters in Jammu on Monday that New Delhi would present Pakistan with evidence of the involvement of a Pakistani-based militant group in the attack, and warned Islamabad that it “would pay for this misadventure.”

Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Tuesday rejected the Indian allegations, calling them “premature and inopportune.”

Kashmir is divided between India and archrival Pakistan. Both claim the region in its entirety.

Several militant groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. Around 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the militants, a charge it denies.

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Associated Press writer Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.