Two soldiers, one civilian dead in Kashmir militant attack

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Militants attacked a paramilitary convoy and a government building in India's disputed Kashmir region on Saturday, killing at least two soldiers and a civilian, police said. The militants attacked the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel near Srinagar, Kashmir's capital, before invading the premises of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, where about 100 people were undergoing a training programme. Thirteen CRPF personnel were injured in the attack, said Syed Javed Mujtaba Geelani, inspector general of police. The CRPF is still engaged in a gun battle with the rebels but the police have safely evacuated the civilians who were trapped in the building, Geelani said. Muslim separatists have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebels in the portion it controls and sending them to the Indian side, a claim its neighbour denies. India and Pakistan fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part. (Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari; Editing by Digby Lidstone)