SRINAGAR, 17 June — Twenty-one people — most of them civilians and Kashmiri fighters — were killed in a sudden escalation of violence in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said yesterday.

Five Hindus were shot dead and three others critically injured when suspected separatist militants opened fire on a village in south Kashmir, police said.

“The militants entered their home and opened indiscriminate fire, killing five of the villagers instantly,” a police spokesman said. “Three others were seriously injured.”

But groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir strongly condemned the killing of the Hindus. In a statement, the Muttahida (United) Jihad Council said: “Let our stand be known to everyone again that we never attack civilians belonging to any race or religion, because it is prohibited by our religion and our code of conduct.

The attack occurred at Balmakote village in Kashmir’s Udhampur district, 200 km north of Jammu, he said.

In a separate incident, three village guards were killed by gunmen in northern Doda district overnight.

“The members of the Village Defense Committee were all Muslims. Three other guards were also injured when gunmen started firing on them,” the spokesman said.

In another incident in the restive region, Indian border guards backed by the army killed four fighters in a shootout in the central Kashmir district of Budgam, a spokesman for India’s Border Security Force (BSF) said.

A civilian who strayed into the cross fire was also killed. “The encounter erupted once BSF personnel sealed off a hide-out in the district and asked the militants inside to surrender,” he said.

The militants instead opened fire which was returned by the security forces, resulting in the death of the fighters who reportedly belonged to Hizbul Mujahedeen.

“One of the slain fighters was a commander,” the BSF spokesman said, adding that a number of other suspects had been arrested and were being questioned.

Residents and Hizb said two of the five dead men were civilians, one of them killed by troops after he stepped outside of his house.

In other incidents, an officer of the counterinsurgency police was killed and another injured in a militant ambush in southern Kashmir district of Pulwama, while the security forces shot dead four separatists in the northern Kashmir districts of Kupwara and Baramulla.

In Kupwara a civilian was shot dead by suspected separatists yesterday, while two separatists, a border guard and a civilian were killed elsewhere in Kashmir.

A civilian was injured in a land mine explosion at Hatlanga along the Line of Control in northern Uri sector.