SRINAGAR, Indian-ruled Kashmir (Islamweb & News Agencies) - At least 22 people have been killed and 45 wounded in fresh separatist violence across the revolt-racked Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Thursday.
One civilian died and 27 others were wounded on Thursday when unidentified militants lobbed a grenade at a security patrol in a crowded marketplace in Budgam town west of Srinagar, the state's summer capital, Indian police said.
Three members of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and three Indian soldiers were killed in a fierce gunbattle in Anantnag district, they added. Three soldiers were wounded in the fighting.
India maintains two Pakistan-based Kashmir militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, were behind the December 13 suicide attack on parliament in New Delhi in which 14 people, including the five attackers were killed.
In another gunbattle Indian security forces shot dead two Kashmiri resistance men near the Pakistan border in Rajouri district, Indian police said.
Elsewhere six militants, four security force personnel and three civilians have been killed in separate shootouts across the restive state since Wednesday evening, according to the sources
Authorities say about 30,000 people have been killed in Indian-ruled Kashmir in about 12 years of an Independence war. Separatists put the figure at closer to 80,000.