Child among 6 killed in IHK gun battles

SRINAGAR: A 12-year-old boy was among six people killed in three separate gun battles between militants and security forces in Indian Held Kashmir, the police and army said Friday.

Clashes have raged in the restive mountainous region since the deaths of 40 Indian troops in a suicide bombing last month provoked air strikes between India and Pakistan.

The boy was killed after militants were trapped in his home in the northern town of Hajin and engaged in a two-day gun battle ending Friday, police told AFP. His father escaped.

Police later claimed the boy was "kept hostage" by the rebels.

"Despite repeated requests by community members and police for his release, he was brutally killed by the terrorists," a police statement said, referring to the two killed militants identified as Pakistani nationals.

Two more militants were "eliminated" late Thursday in the frontier district of Baramulla, Kalia added, while one soldier and two policemen were injured.

Another militant died in a clash with soldiers in the south of the Kashmir valley, army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said. At least a dozen villagers were wounded when government forces clashed with protestors near the site of the fighting, firing metal pellets and live bullets to push them back.