Three policemen and two freedom fighters were killed in a raid by suspected freedom fighters on a fortified police camp on the shores of Indian occupied Kashmir's famed Dal Lake, police said on Sunday.
The raid, in which six policemen were also injured, comes just days after India and Pakistan agreed to take forward their fragile peace process over Indian occupied Kashmir.
The attack began late Saturday when two or three heavily-armed freedom fighters forced their way into the camp housed in a hotel on the shores of the lake, Indian occupied Kashmir's main tourist attraction, in occupied Srinagar.
"Two of the freedom fighters who had stormed the camp have been shot dead," a police officer at the scene told AFP.
Police said two of the slain policemen were officers, sent as reinforcements to fight the raiding freedom fighters.
The raid was the third on camps of India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in occupied Srinagar since July 27, when an island base was attacked by two freedom fighters who killed five policemen before they were gunned down.
On August 4 nine policemen and a freedom were killed in a similar attack on another camp.
The Al-Mansoorain group has claimed responsibility for all three attacks.
Dal Lake is the main tourist attraction in occupied Srinagar, with many tourists staying in picturesque houseboats anchored on its shores.
Houseboat owners said the night-long clash had sparked panic. "Many of the tourists were feeling scared," Abdul Rashid, who owns the Kashmir Hilton houseboat, told AFP.
Indian occupation troops shot dead two freedom fighters in the southern districts of Doda and Poonch overnight, and recovered an improvised explosive device on a key road in Doda planted by freedom fighters, a police spokesman said.
Meanwhile, several hundred Indian Sikhs on Sunday staged a protest in the Indian occupied Kashmir against a ban imposed by the French government on the wearing of religious symbols, including turbans, in schools.
Wearing turbans and carrying Kirpans - traditional Sikh daggers - Sikh men and women walked through the streets of occupied Jammu, shouting slogans like "Restore the dignity of the turban."
They also shouted slogans against the French government which from September 1 enforced a new law prohibiting the wearing of ostentatious religious insignia, including Islamic headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, Sikh turbans and large Christian crosses in state schools and universities.
The Sikh religion forbids male followers from cutting their hair and obliges them to wear a turban.
"The French government is playing with the religious sentiments of the Sikhs," said Manjit Singh, a prominent Sikh cleric in Indian occupied Kashmir.
He appealed to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - India's first Sikh premier - to intervene on behalf of the Sikh community.
National Security Adviser J. N. Dixit has already met French President Jacques Chirac to explain the Sikh community's concerns.
Last week, Sikhs in the northern Indian state of Punjab said members of their community would hold street protests from London to New York starting September 16.
Sikhs make up two percent of India's billion-plus population and live mainly in the northern state of Punjab.
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