Twenty-eight people including 17 Muslim rebels have been killed in the past 24 hours in India's troubled Kashmir region, police said today.
They said Indian security forces shot dead 11 separatist militants in two gun battles today in the state's Poonch district, 480 km (300 miles) southwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
Both gun battles were continuing when last reports came in, a police spokesman said.
In another incident, eight people - seven separatists and one civilian - were killed near Surankote in the same district, police said.
Last night, three policemen were killed when rebels attacked a patrol at Tral, south of Srinagar.
Witnesses said angry policemen retaliated and torched nearly 40 shops and other buildings in the township.
A 10-year-old boy died in the blaze, they said.
"They (policemen) fired indiscriminately and set ablaze shops in the area," Rashid Ahmad, a resident of Tral told Reuters.
A police spokesman denied the charge and said the shops caught fire in the fighting between militants and policemen.
"The fire broke out during the encounter between militants and policemen. We don't know yet if any civilian died due to bullet injuries," he said.