SRINAGAR, India Two Indian soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with suspected militants Thursday along the de facto border with Pakistan, the military said, as parts of Kashmir region remained under curfew.
The gunbattle erupted along the Line of Control that splits Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan after soldiers engaged a group of infiltrating militants, an Indian army spokesman J.S. Brar said.
The latest fighting was reported from northern Machil sector. On Tuesday five suspected rebels and three soldiers were killed in a similar gunbattle.
Violence has risen in recent months in mainly Muslim Indian Kashmir, where two decades of rebellion against Indian rule have left thousands of people dead.
Pakistan denies Indian allegations that it arms and funds rebels.
Elsewhere in Kashmir, Indian troops continued to enforce a strict curfew in parts of the region as tensions remained high after the killing of 11 protestors by security forces during demonstrations this month.
Dozens of women demonstrators, led by the region's leading female separatist Asiya Andrabi, defied the strict security lockdown in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar and staged a noisy anti-India rally.
The women later dispersed after police tried to block the raly.
Later, dozens of young men present at the scene hurled stones at the police, sparking a clash that left six protesters and three policemen injured.
Hardline separatists had called upon Muslim women to march to a revered mosque on Thursday but authorities sealed neighbourhoods and deployed thousands of troops, including women police, to block them.
Police said strict curfew continued in northern town of Sopore for the seventh day running and in southern Anantnag town for the third day.
Thousands of police and paramilitary forces also continued to enforce a security lockdown in northern town of Baramulla, police said.
AFP: Two soldiers killed in curfew-hit Kashmir
The gunbattle erupted along the Line of Control that splits Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan after soldiers engaged a group of infiltrating militants, an Indian army spokesman J.S. Brar said.
The latest fighting was reported from northern Machil sector. On Tuesday five suspected rebels and three soldiers were killed in a similar gunbattle.
Violence has risen in recent months in mainly Muslim Indian Kashmir, where two decades of rebellion against Indian rule have left thousands of people dead.
Pakistan denies Indian allegations that it arms and funds rebels.
Elsewhere in Kashmir, Indian troops continued to enforce a strict curfew in parts of the region as tensions remained high after the killing of 11 protestors by security forces during demonstrations this month.
Dozens of women demonstrators, led by the region's leading female separatist Asiya Andrabi, defied the strict security lockdown in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar and staged a noisy anti-India rally.
The women later dispersed after police tried to block the raly.
Later, dozens of young men present at the scene hurled stones at the police, sparking a clash that left six protesters and three policemen injured.
Hardline separatists had called upon Muslim women to march to a revered mosque on Thursday but authorities sealed neighbourhoods and deployed thousands of troops, including women police, to block them.
Police said strict curfew continued in northern town of Sopore for the seventh day running and in southern Anantnag town for the third day.
Thousands of police and paramilitary forces also continued to enforce a security lockdown in northern town of Baramulla, police said.
AFP: Two soldiers killed in curfew-hit Kashmir
