Gunmen kill three civilians in Indian Kashmir

Suspected anti-Indian gunmen killed three civilians in separate street shootings within 90 minutes of each other on Tuesday (Oct 5) in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said.

Two men, one a prominent medical shop owner and the other a street hawker from the Indian state of Bihar, were killed in the space of an hour in the main city of Srinagar.

Half an hour later, another man was killed in similar fashion in the Shahgund area north of the city, police said.

Government forces cordoned off the sites of the shootings amid a major hunt for the assailants.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, which came just four days after suspected militants killed two residents in street shootings in Srinagar.

The Resistance Front, a relatively new rebel group, claimed those attacks, saying the two slain men worked for the Indian security forces, who have been battling an insurgency in the Himalayan territory for the past three decades.

Since August, at least a dozen civilians and police have been killed by suspected rebels.

Rebel groups have been fighting Indian soldiers since 1989, demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan – which controls a part of the divided region and, like India, claims it in full.