Seven people have been killed in continuing separatist violence in Indian Kashmir, but Islamic rebels freed three civilians held hostage during a standoff with the army, Indian police said on Monday.Three militants and two Indian soldiers died in three separate gun battles with troops and counter-insurgency police, in the southern districts of Anantnag and Doda, late Sunday and early Monday, a police spokesman said. The region's powerful rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin claimed in a telephone call to an Indian news agency that its members had killed the soldiers and snatched their weapons.
In Anantnag district, a soldier was killed and two others were hurt when militants opened fire on patrolling troops on Monday, the spokesman said. Suspected militants, encircled by troops in the south of the state, held three civilians hostage for several hours before freeing them. "The three were freed by the militants unharmed," the spokesman said, adding that the troops engaged the militants in a fierce gun battle after they refused to surrender. Hizbul Mujahedin said that two of its members were involved in the fighting.
Meanwhile, a civilian was shot dead when suspected militants raided his house in Anantnag district late Sunday.