Five soldiers killed amid rising tensions in Kashmir
TEACHERS AMONG THOSE WHO DIED IN WAVE OF CIVILIAN SHOOTINGS
MILITANTS shot dead five soldiers in Indian Kashmir on Monday (11), the army said, stoking tensions in the region following a string of civilian murders.
Separately, two suspected rebels were shot dead in different incidents, authorities said. Colonel Devendar Anand said one officer and four soldiers “were killed during a search operation probably by infiltrators” in a mountain pass near the Line of Control (Loc) dividing the area from Pakistani Kashmir. “The operation is ongoing,” he added.
The shootings were the deadliest attack on military forces in the area since a ceasefire along the LoC announced in February.
Tensions have flared further in recent weeks with a spate of shootings of civilians in the area, with seven killed last week alone in attacks claimed by an anti-India militant group.
They included two teachers gunned down at a school last Thursday (7), sparking public outrage in Kashmir and outside. Politicians from all sides have condemned the killings. The two teachers, shot by gunmen at a government-run school, were from the Sikh and Hindu communities who are minorities in the Muslim-majority region.
A relatively new militant group The Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the seven killings last week and accused those killed of working for “occupier mercenary forces and occupier stooges”.
The statements, issued only in English, were circulated in numerous WhatsApp groups and could not be independently verified by AFP. One of the two suspected rebels killed on Monday was suspected of being involved, authorities said.
His family told reporters that soldiers picked him up last Sunday (10) at then shot him while in their custody.
Some 650 residents suspected to have links with banned religious and militant groups have been detained following the shootings, a police source said.
“No stone will be left unturned to find the killers,” the senior police officer said on condition of anonymity.
There has been an uptick in infiltration attempts by militants from Pakistan, which in February agreed to observe a ceasefire with India along the border in Kashmir, Indian army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said last Saturday (9).
“Over the last month or so, we again see renewed attempts at infiltration,” Naravane told the India Today news channel. “We have eliminated two or three such infiltration attempts.”
Authorities say at least 29 civilians – including workers from pro-India political parties – have been shot dead in Kashmir this year, one of them by security forces.
The killings have frightened Kashmir’s minorities, reviving memories of the 1990s when hundreds of Hindus were killed by militants and thousands of families fled.
Last Saturday (9), Human Rights Watch called for the perpetrators as well as Indian security forces accused of abuses including harassment, torture and extrajudicial killings to be held accountable.
“Kashmiris are caught in unending violence from attacks by militants and abuses by government authorities and security forces,” HRW’s South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said in a statement. (Agencies)