SRINAGAR: Three suspected militants were killed Saturday in separate gunbattles in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said Saturday.
India’s military in a statement said soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a gunbattle that killed two rebels.
In a separate incident in the disputed region’s main city of Srinagar, police and paramilitary soldiers killed a militant in an exchange of gunfire after troops cordoned off a neighborhood on a tip that he was hiding in a house. Police said two soldiers and two police were injured in the fighting.
Residents said the troops torched the home where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic employed by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is “Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.” Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

NOVI SAD, Serbia: Serbia began a day of mourning on Saturday as authorities announced an investigation after 14 people were killed when a roof collapsed at a train station.
The incident happened early on Friday at the main train station in the northern city of Novi Sad.
Residents lit candles and laid flowers at a makeshift memorial for the victims near the railway station and in the city’s main square on Friday, as well as in other towns.
New gatherings were announced for Saturday.
Authorities have launched an investigation over the incident. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Saturday that “determining responsibility started today.”
Dadic told TV Prava that the prosecutor’s office would be questioning 20 people on Saturday “starting from the top, people from the ministries, the public company (Serbia) Railways.”
He said that police were seizing documents related to the railway station from the ministry of construction, transport and infrastructure.
The Higher Public Prosecutors’ Office in Novi Sad confirmed that an investigation was conducted at the railway station.
It said in a statement that it had ordered the “minister for construction, transport and infrastructure be questioned.”
According to the same statement, the process of identification of all victims was completed on Saturday.
The central railway station in Novi Sad underwent three years of renovation that was completed in July.
Serbia Railways said in a statement that the collapsed roof had not been part of the renovations.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic expressed his condolences and support for the victims’ relatives and vowed to take action.
“Those responsible, I assure you, will be punished,” the president said on Friday.
Three more people injured in the incident remain in a serious condition, the University Clinic Center of Vojvodina said.