SRINAGAR: Indian troops shot dead three suspected rebels in Kashmir hours after gunmen sprayed a military convoy and an ambulance with bullets, the army said Tuesday. Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947 and is home to a long-running insurgency. Gunmen fired on the army convoy in the early hours of Monday in the mountainous southern Akhnoor area, near the unofficial border with Pakistan. Soldiers launched a hunt for the attackers and reported that three militants had been killed. “After round the clock surveillance throughout the night, an intense firefight unfolded today morning resulting in a significant victory for our forces,” the army’s White Knight Corps said in a statement. “Relentless operations and tactical excellence has led to the elimination of three terrorists.” At least 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in Kashmir, battling an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels since 1989. Earlier this month, gunmen killed seven people near a construction site for a strategic road tunnel to Ladakh, a high-altitude Himalayan region bordering China. On Friday, Indian officials said five people — including three soldiers — were killed in an ambush on an army convoy. New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for arming the militants and helping them launch attacks, an allegation Islamabad denies. The army says more than 720 rebels have been killed since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled the territory’s limited autonomy in 2019. In early October, Kashmir held its first elections since 2014 for a regional assembly for the territory of some 12 million people.