Three local rebels were killed in a gunbattle with Indian government forces in disputed Kashmir on Sunday, and six civilians were killed in an explosion at the site after the fighting was over, officials and residents said, ABC News reported.

Meanwhile, three Indian army soldiers and two suspected militants were killed in a gunbattle along the highly militarized line of control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The fighting erupted after troops cordoned off a village in the southern Kulgam area on a tip that rebels were hiding there, India's military said. The exchange lasted for several hours, and three militants were killed and two soldiers injured, the military said.

Residents said soldiers blasted a civilian home with explosives while fighting the rebels, a common charge by Kashmiris who deeply resent the Indian army's presence.

As the fighting raged, anti-India protesters tried to reach the site of the standoff. They threw stones at government forces hoping to help the trapped rebels escape. Government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas at the protesters, leaving at least 35 injured.

As counterinsurgency police and soldiers hastily left the place after the fighting was over, hundreds of civilians converged on the site. An explosion occurred as people tried to extinguish a fire at the blasted house, residents said, killing at least one civilian and wounding 10 others who were hospitalized in critical condition. Five other civilians died at hospitals.