Five security personnel and four freedom fighters have been killed in a fresh surge of violence that saw shooting at a popular tourist spot in Indian occupied Kashmir, police said on Tuesday.
Two policemen were killed and a civilian hurt when freedom fighter opened fire in the Dalgate area of the summer capital Srinagar on Tuesday morning, a police spokesman said.
The shooting sparked panic in the busy area, a favourite spot for Indian and foreign tourists. Hours later freedom fighters killed two paramilitary men in a point-blank shooting in a busy marketplace in the Kakasarai area of Srinagar, police said.
The group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for attacks in a telephone calls to local agency Current News Service. In other violence, four freedom fighters and a policeman were killed late on Monday in three separate gunbattles in southern Poonch and Pulwama districts, a police spokesman said, adding that another policeman was hurt in the fighting.
Police said one of the slain freedom fighters was a senior member of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Police also said they had arrested the "divisional commander" of the region's powerful Hizbul Mujahedin group in the northern town of Sopore. "Fayaz Ahmad alias Saleem Khan was carrying on various subversive activities since year 2000," a police statement said.