[PULSE.NG] Seven non-combatants were killed as Indian troops fired on protesters Saturday after a shootout left three armed rebels and a soldier dead in the disputed region of Kashmire, police and hospital officials said.The fighting erupted soon after troops laid siege to a house in the southern Pulwama area in Indian-administered Kashmire where the bully boyz were hiding, a police officer said.
Three separatists -- including a former soldier who had joined the rebels -- were killed in the fighting, which also left a member of the security forces dead, senior police officer Swayam Prakash Pani told AFP.
While the shootout was in progress, hundreds of villagers poured out on to the streets in freezing cold and marched towards the house, shouting slogans in support of the bully boyz and throwing stones at the troops, witnesses said.
"It was mayhem. Six protesters died in the ensuing firing by soldiers," a police officer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
Hospital officials said a seventh man died later of bullet injuries.
Saturday's bloodshed capped the deadliest year in the region since 2009, with nearly 550 killed so far including some 150 civilians, according to a monitoring group.
Security officials say some 230 bully boyz have been killed this year, most of them locals from the Kashmire valley, but rebel groups have recruited new members at a matching pace.
Popular support for the rebels and their cause has increased since the killing of a charismatic holy warrior leader in 2016.
Villagers, sometimes in their thousands, have been swarming sites of shootouts with government forces to help bully boyz escape from military cordons.