SRINAGAR, India: Police say insurgents have shot and killed two policemen at a market place in the Indian portion of Kashmir.

A police statement said the assailants fled after Saturday's attack near a bus stop in Handwara, a town 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Srinagar, the main town in the Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Nearly a dozen rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the region.

Kashmir has been hit by violent anti-India protests since Kashmiri militant Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged in a New Delhi jail Feb. 9. He was convicted of involvement in a 2001 attack on India's Parliament.

Many people believe Guru did not receive a fair trial.