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Source:AFP
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Thirteen people died in attacks across revolt-hit Indian
Kashmir and 17 people, including seven journalists, were hurt in an ongoing gunfight in the heart of the summer capital, police said.
One or two armed militants attacked a paramilitary bunker in Srinagar's Lal Chowk commercial hub with rifle fire and a grenade, sparking panic among passersby, they said.
"The fire was returned and in the initial exchange of fire 12 people were injured," the officer told AFP. The bunker is at the gate of a paramilitary camp which also houses a Hindu temple.
Five more people were hurt in further exchanges of fire and a police vehicle burst into flames after being strafed with bullets, police said.
They said five cameramen working for Indian television networks and two photographers for a local Urdu newspaper were among the injured along with five border security guards, two policemen and two civilians.
As darkness fell, firing continued between security forces and the militants holed up in two or three buildings in the main square.
Militant groups Al Mansurian and Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack in separate calls to local news agency Current News Service.
Men, women and children were seen running for cover as the fighting broke out, an AFP correspondent at the scene said. Police and paramilitary forces cordoned off the area and launched searches to flush out the militants.
"We have been showing a lot of restraint to prevent damage to the property and businesses," Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma told reporters.
More than 44,000 people have died since the start of an Islamic rebellion in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1989, although separatists put the toll twice as high.
Elswhere in the Himalayan state, two policemen were killed in an ambush by rebels in the southern district of Doda on Friday, police said.
In the northern district of Rajouri, suspected Islamic rebels lined up five Hindus and killed them by slitting their throats, the Indian Border Security Force said. It was unclear what provoked the attack.
A Muslim woman died in the same district after rebels also slit her throat, police said, adding that suspected militants also killed a policeman's wife and nephew in another northern district, Kupwara.
Suspected rebels also killed a Muslim youth in Srinagar Friday, a police spokesman said.
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A news photographer takes picture of a paramilitary jeep
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Muzaffar Hussain, a news cameraman, runs for cover minutes before he was hit in the crossfire between suspected rebels and soldiers, in Srinagar... He is in Critical Condition.
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Paramilitary soldiers and Policemen take cover during a militant attack
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firefighters put out a fire on a security vehicle