Residents held angry protests on Sunday after five civilians died in a three-day raid by the Indian occupation army on a suspected freedom fighters' hideout in occupied Kashmir, witnesses said.
Five civilians, five suspected freedom fighters and three occupation soldiers have died since troops laid siege to an area in northern occupied Kashmir on Thursday on suspicion it was a hub of freedom fighters' operations, army spokesman Major Dharam Adhikari said.
Adhikari said the civilians were porters hired by the army who died in the crossfire.
But residents of the closest town, Bandipore, alleged that the five dead were among some 25 civilians taken as human shields by the army. Several thousand people poured into the streets of Bandipore on Sunday chanting anti-Indian slogans over the deaths, witnesses said.