SRINAGAR - Suspected rebels killed two paramilitary soldiers and wounded another 10 after attacking their convoy in Indian-occupied Kashmir on Wednesday, a senior police officer said.
The rebels fired on the convoy transporting Border Security Force (BSF) troops near the town of Udhampur, 250 kilometres south of the main city of Srinagar.
“We had two fatal casualties of BSF soldiers, 10 were injured in the attack,” said inspector general of police for the region, Danesh Rana.
One attacker was killed during a gunbattle with government forces that followed the attack. Another was captured and four civilians taken hostage by him were rescued unharmed, Rana claimed.
The attack comes a week after gunmen stormed a police station in Indian Punjab, sparking an 11-hour gunbattle with officers that killed seven people.
On Tuesday four civilians were killed during heavy exchanges of fire by Indian and Pakistani troops across their border in Kashmir.
Kashmir has been divided between Pakistan and India since the two countries won independence from Britain in 1947, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Since 1989, several Kashmiri groups have been fighting hundreds of thousands of Indian forces deployed in the region, for independence or a merger of the disputed territory with Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the unrest.