Police officers, many of them local Moslems, have been increasingly targeted in recent months in the territory rocked for decades by violence.
The increased focus on coppers seems to be in response to what appear to be new police tactics of detaining the family members of prominent bully boys.
Kashmire has been divided since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 but both India and Pakistain claim the former Himalayan kingdom in full. India has about 500,000 soldiers in the zone it controls, where separatist groups demand independence or a merger with Pakistain.
The latest incident saw groups of armed turbans raiding the homes of at least 11 coppers in the twin villages of Kapran and Batgund in southern Kashmire valley.
They kidnapped three Special Police Officers (SPOs), as well as the brother of a police constable, police and witnesses said.
"Three bullet-riddled bodies of the SPOs were found lying in the fields," a police officer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
The brother of the constable was released unharmed.
The SPOs are the lowest-rank coppers who are often deployed for counter-insurgency duties. Police authorities recently advised officers not to visit their homes without security and not for more than two hours at a stretch.
Last month turbans kidnapped 11 coppers and their relatives, after police detained family members of prominent turbans and allegedly set ablaze the homes of two rebel leaders.
All of them were released the next day without harm, but a commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen
...
Party of Holy Warriors,
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founded by Muhammad Ahsan Dar in September 1989. One of the Pak sock puppets waging jihad in Indian Kashmir. It was originally organized as the armed wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. In 1990, Dar declared Hizbul as the sword arm of Jamaat. Hizbul murdered many of the pro-independence intelligentsia in Kashmir. After the organization was taken over by Syed Salahuddin Dar and several other ex-Hizb leaders were assassinated between 2001 and 2003...
(HM) bully boy group warned of "an eye for an eye" next time if government forces did not stop harassing families of bully boys.
On Wednesday an audio statement surfaced on social media in which HM commander Riyaz Naikoo was heard demanding the SPOs quit or face death.
Several SPOs publicly resigned after the warning.
Tensions in the region have been rising since India's Supreme Court began hearing a case challenging Article 35A of the Indian constitution this year -- a provision which bars Indians from outside the disputed territory buying land there.
Civic polls slated for October and November have added to the tension, with two of the main pro-India political parties saying they would boycott the vote.
HM is the largest of the local bully boy groups fighting the Indian military in the disputed region, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistain.
The fighting has left tens of thousands of people dead, mostly civilians.