Two soldiers and six suspected rebels were killed in two gunfights in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said on Sunday.
Kashmir police chief Vidhi Kumar Birdi told AFP that local authorities had “carried out two separate operations” in villages in Kulgam district.
According to the official, two security personnel were killed in these operations, and clashes are still ongoing in the villages of Modirgram and Fersal Shinigam.
“We have recovered the bodies of two terrorists from Modragram and four others from Ferizal Chenigam,” Birdi said.
This is the latest incident in the Muslim-majority region disputed between India and Pakistan.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. The two neighbours have fought three wars over control of the Himalayan region.
Rebel groups have been waging an armed insurgency since 1989, demanding independence for the region or its annexation to Pakistan.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels.
Clashes between rebels and the military have declined significantly since 2019, when the Indian government revoked Indian Kashmir's semi-autonomous status.
India regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.
In June, nine Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens injured during an attack on a bus returning from a Hindu temple in the Reasi area (south Kashmir).
It was one of the deadliest attacks in years and the first on Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir since 2017 when seven people were killed in another bus ambush.
