Yahoo News
30 March 2017
(AP)

Three civilians were killed and 28 other people were injured in anti-India protests that erupted yesterday following a gunbattle between rebels and government forces that killed a rebel in disputed Kashmir, police and witnesses said.

The gun battle began after police and soldiers cordoned off the southern town of Chadoora following a tip that at least one militant was hiding in a house, said Inspector-General Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani.

As the fighting raged, hundreds of residents chanting anti-India slogans marched near the area in an attempt to help the trapped rebel escape.

Witnesses said intense clashes between rock-throwing protesters and government forces erupted just a few hundred meters (yards) from the besieged house, with police and paramilitary soldiers firing shotgun pellets and tear gas to stop the protest.

However, clashes spread to multiple places in the area.

Later, government forces fired into the crowd, killing three civilians, including a teenager, and injuring at least 20 others, police said, adding that eight police and soldiers were also injured in the clashes