After relatives of two civilians killed in a contentious gunfight mounted a protest in Srinagar demanding that the remains be returned for customary burial, authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir detained them on Wednesday.

The two civilians were among four persons killed in a confrontation with government security forces earlier this week in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and their relatives have accused the army of lying about how the raid went down.

The people were killed in the crossfire between government troops and insurgents, according to police. During the standoff, however, witnesses and families of the people claim that Indian troops used them as human shields.

Four individuals were murdered in the raid, according to authorities in the disputed region's major city on Tuesday.

According to authorities, the confrontation resulted in the deaths of a foreign "terrorist," Hyder — whose alias is Bilal Bhai — as well as his "partner," Aamir Ahmad, and "two supporters," Mudasir Gul and Altaf Ahmad Bhat.

Vijay Kumar, the Muslim-majority Kashmir region's police inspector general, informed reporters that authorities have information regarding the presence of terrorists in the area.

"The joint teams of police, central reserve police force and army set up a cordon and searched," he said, adding that when government forces knocked on the door of a room where the militants were hiding, militants shot at them, and in "self-defense, troops opened fire."

Bhat, who sold cement and hardware on the ground floor, owned a three-story shopping center where the gunfight took place. Gul rented the first floor and used it to run a construction company and a contact center, where Ahmad worked as a helper.