Gunbattle follows Kashmir attack
Indian forces search for militants responsible for killing 40 soldiers
Tensions escalated after a suicide attack in disputed Kashmir, with nine people killed Monday in a gunbattle that broke out as Indian soldiers searched for militants.
Government forces surrounded a village in the southern Pulwama area on a tip that militants were hiding there, security officials said.
As troops began conducting searches, they came under heavy gunfire, leading to a clash that killed four soldiers, three suspected militants, a police official and a civilian.
Three army officers, a senior police officer and three other soldiers were wounded in the operation, which follows the suicide attack last Thursday on a paramilitary convoy that killed at least 40 soldiers, the worst attack against Indian government forces in Kash- mir’s history.
India blamed the attack on Pakistan and promised a “jaw-breaking response.”
Pakistan has warned India against linking it to the attack without an investigation, saying that it was part of New Delhi’s “known rhetoric and tactics” to divert global attention from human rights violations in Kashmir.
India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the Muslim-majority region in its entirety.
The attack has led to a spike in communal tensions in Hindumajority India.
Videos of anti-Kashmiri pro- tests have gone viral on social media, including some in which Kashmiri students were beaten by mobs of Hindu nationalist groups and warned to leave colleges and universities.
On the outskirts of the northern city of Ambala, about 300 Kashmiri students were forced to leave their rented accommodations by local Hindu residents, at least three students reached by phone told The Associated Press. One of the students who asked to be identified by only his middle name, Ahmed, due to fear of reprisals from his university, said he and his fellow students felt unsafe despite police security. The Kashmir i students blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist ruling party for stoking antiMuslim and anti-Kashmiri sentiment in India ahead of a general election due this year.
Vijay Kumar, a top government adviser, said they received several complaints from students and businesspeople, and authorities were “doing everything possible for the security” of Kashmiris.
Rebels have been fighting Indian control in Kashmir since 1989 and the uprising and ensuing crackdown have killed about 70,000 people.