QAISER MIRZA
Associated Press Writer
PATTAN, India (AP) -- Six firefighters were shot and injured in this Kashmir town as they tried to save the central market from a fire started during a battle between soldiers and guerrillas.
Firefighters trying to douse the still-smoldering shops and houses Tuesday said six of their colleagues were shot Monday evening. The injured remained in the hospital Tuesday, with one listed in serious condition.
``We were approaching toward the market when we heard the sound of firing and our vehicle was hit,'' said Mohmad Muzfar, one of the injured firemen>.
Residents of this town 20 miles north of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, said soldiers set fire to the crowded central market, gutting several buildings and homes, including a two-story structure that had housed 57 shops.
The army set the fire in retaliation for a nearby ambush that killed two soldiers and injured several others, a representative of the Islamic separatist group Hizbul Mujahedin told The Associated Press. He did not identify himself.
An army statement said that the fire started when an electric pole short-circuited and that ``militants are choosing places to open fire in the marketplace so troops could be provoked to retaliate.'' The army did not comment further.
The Press Trust of India news agency said six firemenand three civilians had been shot.
Indian soldiers have frequently been accused of human rights abuses during a 10-year insurgency by Islamic groups seeking to separate the Muslim majority region from Hindu-dominated India. More than 26,000 people have been killed since the fighting began.
Press Trust quoted unidentified official sources as saying Indian forces killed seven men at two points along the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and India on Monday night. The report said Pakistani troops had opened fire on Indian guardposts during the attempted infiltration and both sides traded gunfire through Tuesday afternoon.
