Three Indian soldiers among four killed in held Kashmir

SRINAGAR: A woman and three soldiers were killed Thursday when freedom fighters ambushed an army convoy in Held Kashmir, police said.

The soldiers were returning from a search operation when the fighters attacked their convoy, injuring six, three of whom later died. The woman was hit by a stray bullet and died, police said.

“Three soldiers succumbed to their injuries at the army hospital in Srinagar,” said a police spokesman who asked not to be named, referring to the main city in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Area superintendent of police Tahir Saleem told AFP the woman, who lived near where the ambush occurred in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, was hit by crossfire. The area was one of the main centres of violent protests last year against the killing of a popular freedom fighters leader in a gun-battle battle with Indian troops. More than 90 civilians were killed and thousands more injured in clashes between protesters and government forces.