By Zahid Rafiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu-Kashmir

Three militants were killed during an alleged gunfight on Wednesday in southern Jammu-Kashmir’s Tral area, according to Indian army.

A civilian protester was also killed near the site of the gunbattle after demonstrations began when news of the deaths of the suspects spread.

Army spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia told Anadolu Agency the three militants were killed in Gulab Bagh village in Tral.

Police said three slain militants were local Kashmiri men affiliated with the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind group -- the breakaway faction of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant organization.

Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, said to be headed by Kashmiri militant Zakir Musa, broke away from Hizbul Mujahideen earlier this year, saying its members would fight “only for Islam and establishing Sharia rule, and not for nationalism or Pakistan'.

In a statement, Hizb-ul Mujahideen said the slain militants “were part of so-called Zakir Musa group and were coming back to rejoin us, but they got killed in a gunfight on their way”.

The killing of the three militants immediately triggered protests in the area. Indian armed forces responded by firing tear gas canisters and shotgun pellets on the crowd, killing allegedly a 16-year-old-boy.

"16-year-old Younis Ahmed Sheikh had been hit by multiple pellets in the chest and he died in the hospital," a senior doctor at Srinagar’s Shri Mahataja Hari Singh hospital told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.

Sheikh is the fourth civilian to have been allegedly killed by Indian armed forces since Aug. 1.

According to data compiled by Jammu-Kashmir police department, 97 militants, 27 civilians and 39 Indian armed forces’ personnel have been killed during first six months of 2017.

Since Aug. 1, according to police records, 11 suspected militants and two Indian soldiers were killed in alleged gunfights in the region.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.

Kashmiri resistance groups in Jammu-Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

More than 70,000 people have reportedly been killed in the conflict since 1989. India maintains more than half a million troops in the disputed region.