SRINAGAR, 23 MAY (DNA) – Suspected militants on Monday gunned down three Indian police officers in separate attacks in Srinagar. Deadly attacks on security forces are relatively common in the region, but Srinagar has been largely free from such incidents in recent years.

Police said two officers were shot dead while patrolling in the old part of the city. A third was shot dead in a business district less than an hour later. “Three cops were killed in two different militant attacks,” senior officer Ghulam Hassan Bhat told media in Srinagar.

The militant group Hizbul Mujahideen claimed the attacks, but there was no official confirmation it was responsible. Authorities said they were tightening security in already heavily militarised Srinagar in the wake of the attacks.

The last major assault on security forces in Srinagar was in June 2013, when suspected militants attacked an army convoy and killed eight soldiers the day before a visit by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Last year the city saw a series of grenade attacks on telecom company offices and paramilitary troop installations. Several militant groups have since 1989 been fighting police or troops deployed in the Indian sector, calling for its independence or merger with Pakistan. DNA