SRINAGAR, Aug 20 (2001): Seventeen people including 14 rebels and a teenage boy have been killed in India’s strife-torn Kashmir where violence has soared since last month’s fruitless summit between India and Pakistan, police said.

An Indian soldier and three rebels were killed in a fierce gunbattle at Nagri Malpora near Pakistan border in Kupwara district, 87 km (54 miles) northwest of Srinagar, police said.

They said three militants were also killed in the same district in separate shootouts.

Two guerrillas were killed early on Monday in a gunbattle near the airport of the state’s winter capital, Jammu, a police official said.

“We are, however, investigating whether the airport was their intended target or not,” the official said.

In another incident, three militants belonging to the pro-Pakistan Lashhar-e-Taiba militant group were killed in a clash with security forces near the Gool area in Udhampur district, 65 km (40 miles) east of Jammu.

Elsewhere, three militants, a teenage boy and a civilian were killed in separatist violence across the troubled region, police said.

All the attacks came either late on Sunday or on Monday.

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