Summary Assailants fired at two paramilitary police from close range in Kupwara district.
SRINAGAR (AFP) - Suspected militants on Saturday shot dead two policemen in Indian Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region which has been tense since the hanging of a separatist last month, police said.
The assailants fired at two paramilitary policemen from close range in the attack carried out near a bus stop in Kupwara district, north of the region s main city Srinagar, police said.
"Militants fired at policemen who were discharging their duties near Handwara bus stand this morning. They were shifted to hospital where they were declared dead," a police spokesman told AFP.
The Kashmir valley has been tense since Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist, was hanged in February at a jail in New Delhi for his involvement in a 2001 attack on India s parliament which killed 10 people.
A curfew was temporarily imposed in major towns of Indian-administered Kashmir following his execution to contain unrest which claimed three lives, including that of a teenaged boy shot by security forces.
Many in the Muslim-majority region believe Guru did not receive a fair trial and there are fears his hanging could fuel fresh violence in Kashmir, where a separatist conflict has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives over the last 20 years.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. Each administers part of the territory but claims the whole area.
