7 killed in held Kashmir gun battles

SRINAGAR: Five Indian officers and two fighters were killed in separate gun battles this week in held Kashmir, with clashes ongoing, officials in the occupied region said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, two Indian army officers and a senior policeman carrying out a security sweep in a forested area of the southern Kashmir valley were ambushed and killed, with the two suspected gunmen holed up and firing at soldiers encircling their position.

Kashmir police said their force had surrounded two men they said belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group. “Our forces persist with unwavering resolve,” police posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Four people were killed on Tuesday — an Indian soldier, a police officer and two fighters — during a prolonged firefight in the mountainous Rajouri area. Gunmen first shot dead an army sniffer dog that had led the soldiers to the fighters.