SRINAGAR: Police say suspected rebels have fired at a group of police officers in the main city of the Indian portion of Kashmir, killing two of them.

Police officer Nazir Ahmed says Monday's shootout took place in the downtown Zadibal area of Srinagar.

He says Indian security forces are searching the area for the assailants, who fled after the attack.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep among the mostly Muslim population of Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan. Rebel groups in India's portion of the Himalayan region have been fighting since 1989 for independence or a merger with Pakistan.

More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the armed uprising and subsequent Indian crackdown.