Ekip
17 December 2016•Update: 17 December 2016
By Zahid Rafiq
SRINAGAR, Indian held Kashmir
Three Indian soldiers were killed in Indian-held Kashmir on Saturday when suspected militants opened fire on a convoy of Indian army vehicles passing along the Srinagar-Jammu Highway, according to a police source.
The source, who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said a group of militants opened fire on an army convoy near Kadalbal neighborhood of Pampore town, about 3 kilometers (around 2 miles) from Srinagar city in the afternoon.
The Indian forces cordoned off the entire area immediately after the attack, but the militants, according to a police source, managed to escape.
Saturday's attack took place in the same area where eight police personnel were killed in a similar ambush in June earlier this year.
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
The two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.
Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in IHK have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
More than 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed so far in the violence, most of them by Indian forces. India maintains over half a million soldiers in the Indian-held Kashmir.
