Crackdown widens in Kashmir after civilian deaths

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SRINAGAR, June 29 (AFP): The police in Indian-ruled Kashmir placed more towns under curfew and banned mobile phone text messages Tuesday in an attempt to dampen protests over the killing of civilians by security forces.
In a separate incident in the volatile Himalayan region, three Indian soldiers and five suspected militants died during a gunbattle near the de facto border that splits Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the military said.
"The fighting erupted late Monday when a group of militants tried to sneak into (Indian) Kashmir," army spokesman Vineet Sood told AFP.
Indian Kashmir has been wracked by street protests since June 11, when a 17-year-old student died after being hit by a teargas shell fired by police during a demonstration in the Kashmiri summer capital of Srinagar.