Indian forces clash with Islamic militants

Indian government forces raided a hideout of suspected Islamic militants in the Indian part of Kashmir today, sparking a gunbattle which left two soldiers and one rebel dead.

Another two soldiers were critically injured in the fighting in Nildora, a forested village 40 miles south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, said Hemant Lohia, a deputy inspector-general of police.

Suspected insurgents resorted to a heavy gunfire and threw hand grenades as government soldiers approached their hide-out, Lohia said.

The wounded soldiers have been taken to hospital.

More than a dozen militant groups have been fighting the Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the conflict.