Gunmen kill five in Indian Kashmir patrol ambush

Suspected militants in Indian-administered Kashmir ambushed an army vehicle and killed five people, including three soldiers, officials said Friday, days after gunmen killed seven construction workers in the disputed territory.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the territory in full.

India's army confirmed a brief exchange of fire with "terrorists" late Thursday in the vicinity of Gulmarg, near the heavily militarised unofficial border dividing Kashmir with Pakistan.

India's Chinar Corps army unit paid tribute to two slain riflemen, expressing "deepest condolences" and "solidarity with the bereaved families" in a post Friday on social media platform X.

Another soldier wounded in the attack died Friday at a military hospital.

A local government official told AFP two civilian porters engaged by the army were also killed.

The official, declining to be named because he was not authorised to speak to media, said the porters were travelling with soldiers when their vehicle was "ambushed by militants".

Their bodies were handed to their families for last rites, an AFP journalist saw.

The region's governor Manoj Sinha joined top army officers to lay floral wreaths on three coffins wrapped in the Indian national flag to pay tribute to the dead soldiers at the military headquarters in the main city of Srinagar.

"Paid homage to the brave soldiers and Defence Porters," Sinha posted on X.

India has a permanent deployment of about 500,000 soldiers in the part of Kashmir controlled by New Delhi.

Anti-India rebel groups have waged an insurgency for decades, demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.

The conflict has left tens of thousands of soldiers, civilians and militants dead so far.

New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for supporting the rebels in launching attacks in Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies.

Thursday's clash comes days after gunmen killed seven workers inside a labour camp near the construction site of a strategic tunnel connecting Kashmir valley with Ladakh, a Himalayan region bordering China.

Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said the recent attacks were "a matter of serious concern".