Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the disputed Muslim-majority region, where guerrilla groups have fought for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Wednesday’s attack occurred in Pattan town about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Srinagar — the main city in the India-controlled Himalayan region — triggering panic among shoppers and merchants, said Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the Central Reserve Police Force.
The attackers fled after grabbing the dead soldiers’ rifles, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
While insurgent strikes have largely been suppressed by Indian forces, Kashmiri resistance is now principally through street demonstrations.
Since June, the region has been rocked by violent anti-India protests and subsequent crackdowns by government security forces that have killed at least 111 people — mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars for control over the region since they won independence from Britain in 1947.
