Indian security forces shot dead seven civilians and wounded dozens of others on Saturday during a protest over the killing of three militants in a gun battle in restive Kashmir, the authorities said.

A defense spokesman, Col. Rajesh Kalia, said the police operation had been spurred in response to intelligence reports about the presence of militants in a village in Pulwama district, south of the state’s summer capital, Srinagar.

“During the operation, militants fired upon troops, leading to a gun battle in which three militants were killed,” he said.

A senior police officer told Reuters that large numbers of civilians then gathered at the site, leading to clashes between with security forces, in which seven people were killed and about 50 others injured.

A witness, Mohammad Ayuob, said Indian troops had fired at the civilians when they tried to retrieve the body of a militant.

Jammu and Kashmir is mainly Hindu India’s only Muslim-majority state. India and Pakistan both rule the region in part but claim it in full. India has accused Pakistan of fomenting trouble in its part of Kashmir, a charge that the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, denies.

The Himalayan state has been particularly tense over the past few months as the Hindu nationalist party of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has pulled out of local government, leaving a power void.

Widespread protests have broken out in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir over the killings. Security has been tightened and troops have rushed to potential hot spots. A curfew was imposed in Pulwama town and surrounding areas, according to news media reports.

The separatist group Hurriyat Conference called for a three-day strike and protests across Kashmir.

“Bullets and pellets rain,” its chairman, Mirwaiz Omar, posted on Twitter, adding that supporters would march toward an army cantonment on Monday so that the Indian government could “kill all of us at one time rather than killing us daily.”

The authorities have suspended train services in the Kashmir Valley and shut down mobile internet services to try to prevent the unrest from spreading.

Indian security forces say they have killed 242 militants this year. In addition, 101 civilians and 82 security officials have also died, according to officials. The death toll is the highest in more than a decade.