controlled Kashmir, police said. In the first incident, police raided the mountain village of Dardar after receiving a tip that a wanted rebel was hiding there. He was killed after a brief gunbattle, local police chief S.P. Pani said. Pani said the rebel was a member of Hizb-ul-Mujahedeen, one of a dozen groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir. Dardar is about 88 kilometers (55 miles) south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. In the nearby village of Katpura, a group of insurgents ambushed a police patrol, setting off a land mine and then opening fire. Two policemen were seriously wounded, Pani said. The patrol returned fire but the gunmen managed to flee, he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Muslim rebels have been fighting security forces in India's portion of Kashmir for the region's independence or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. The insurgency has killed more than 68,000 people.
