OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: Two soldiers and three freedom fighters were killed in an overnight gunbattle in held Kashmir, officials said Sunday, in the latest bloodshed.

Hundreds of Indian soldiers and counter-insurgency forces surrounded Awneera, a village about 50 kilometres (32 miles) south of the main city of occupied Srinagar, on Saturday evening following a tip-off about freedom fighters in the area. A fierce firefight broke out in which three freedom fighters and two soldiers were killed, army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told AFP.

A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the freedom fighters were identified as locals.

As news of their death spread, hundreds of residents from neighbouring villages took to the streets in protest, throwing stones at soldiers and chanting slogans against Indian rule.

In a separate incident early Sunday freedom fighters fired at an army convoy in the northern are of Hajin and injured two police officers and a soldier, the same police officer said.

On Saturday a civilian and a soldier were killed in gunfire between Indian and Pakistan soldiers along the heavily militarised LoC splitting the territory.—AFP