Gunfights in Indian Kashmir leave 3 dead, several injured amid rising violence

Srinagar, India, June 12, (EFE).- A paramilitary trooper and two militants were killed while at least seven people were injured in two gun battles between security forces and suspected guerrillas in the disputed India-administered Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.

The two incidents occurred in the Jammu division of the troubled Himalayan region, marking the latest surge in violence in the Hindu-majority area of this predominantly Muslim territory.

Police reported that gunfights continued in both the Kathua and Doda districts of the disputed region hours after they began.

A police officer in Kathua told EFE that a paramilitary trooper, critically injured in an exchange of fire with militants, succumbed to his injuries.

“The encounter between militants and the security forces in Kathua village started at around 3 a.m,, and is still going on,” the police officer said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Additional Director General of Police Anand Jain told reporters that two militants appeared in the village asking for water from some houses in Kathua, raising villagers’ suspicions.

Some villagers raised an alarm and the militants opened fire, injuring one civilian, Anand said.

Both the militants were shot dead hours after the military operation in the area not far from the border with Pakistan.

The police officer said the attack maybe a result of “fresh infiltration” from across the border with Pakistan.

“It is our hostile neighbor who always tries to damage the peaceful environment in our country. The Kathua attack appears to be a fresh infiltration,” he said.

In another incident, militants attacked a security post in the mountainous Doda district, injuring five Indian Army soldiers and a police officer.

A Doda police officer told EFE that the injured were evacuated to a nearby health facility, and the exchange of fire between militants and security forces was ongoing.

These incidents followed a June 9 suspected militant attack on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in the Reasi district of Jammu, which killed at least nine and injured 33.

On May 4, militants targeted an Indian Air Force convoy in the Poonch district, killing an IAF corporal and injuring four others.

Despite authorities claiming that militancy in the volatile Kashmir region is waning after the abrogation of the region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019, the Jammu division is witnessing a surge in violent incidents.

For the past three and a half decades, militants in the region, divided between India and Pakistan, have been fighting for either independence or a merger with Pakistan. A raging armed rebellion has killed tens of thousands of people, including civilians, since the early 1990s. EFE

sa-ssk