SRINAGAR: Suspected militants yesterday shot dead two policemen in Indian Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region, which has been tense since the hanging of a separatist last month, police said.

The assailants fired at two paramilitary policemen from close range in the attack carried out near a bus stop in Kupwara district, north of the region’s main city Srinagar, police said.

“Militants fired at policemen who were discharging their duties near Handwara bus stand this morning. They were shifted to hospital where they were declared dead,” a police spokesman said.

The Kashmir valley has been tense since Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist, was hanged in February at a jail in New Delhi for his involvement in a 2001 attack on India’s Parliament, which killed 10 people.

A curfew was temporarily imposed in major towns of Indian-administered Kashmir following his execution to contain unrest, which claimed three lives, including that of a teenaged boy shot by security forces.

Many in the Muslim-majority region believe Guru did not receive a fair trial and there are fears his hanging could fuel fresh violence in Kashmir, where a separatist conflict has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives over the last 20 years.

Meanwhile in Delhi, two siblings who were allegedly kidnapped from their school four days ago were found dead in New Delhi yesterday. Their bodies were found in decomposed state near Pragati Maidan in the heart of the city.

The children — a seven-year-old boy and his five-year-old sister ­— went missing four days ago from Mandawli in east Delhi. They had gone to their school on February 26, but did not return home.

The kidnappers called the parents a couple of times and demanded Rs. 30 lakh as ransom. They also informed the parents about the place they wanted them to come to with the desired money and fixed the time for meeting twice. The parents however say they did not go to pay the amount hoping the police would nab the culprits soon. Sources in the police say the day the children went missing, their mother was mysteriously locked inside her house when she was about to leave to pick her children from the school. The school’s management claims the children knew the person they left with.

“The children recognized the man as a family member. They called him “chacha” (uncle). He had come to pick them up earlier as well. The police have taken our statements and spoken to several students too who are helping them draw a sketch of the suspect,” the school’s principal said.

But the children’s mother is inconsolable. “It is the fault of the school. I used to go there to bring them daily,” she said.

Her husband works at a financial institution. He suspects his landlord’s involvement in the kidnapping of his children.

Angry over the alleged security lapse at the school and inaction of the police, around a 100 people gathered outside Mandawli police station yesterday and raised slogans. Protests also happened outside the school.