4 dead in Kashmir base attack
Mumbai attack suspect to sue
SRINAGAR, India, Oct 3, (Agencies): Three suspected militants were killed Tuesday after they stormed a paramilitary base near the main airport of Indian-administered Kashmir, police said, ending an hours-long gun battle that also left a soldier dead.
Three paramilitary troopers and a police officer were also injured as the trio of attackers hurled grenades and fired automatic weapons at the Border Security Force (BSF) base next to Srinagar airport before dawn, director general of police S. P. Vaid said.
“All the three militants have been killed. An assistant sub-inspector of BSF also died in the initial assault,” Vaid told AFP.
Flight operations resumed at the high-security airport after being suspended briefly, with at least one in-bound flight from New Delhi cancelled, authorities said.
The base in which the gun battle took place shares a common compound wall with the airport.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 but both claim the territory in full.
For decades rebel groups have fought roughly 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan. Tuesday’s attack came a day after Indian soldiers killed five suspected rebels near the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) that divides the territory with Pakistan.
In August, militants attacked a police base in the southern Kashmir town of Pulwama, killing eight security personnel. Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for that attack.
Two children were also killed on Monday during an exchange of gunfire between Indian and Pakistani troops, Indian authorities said.
Last week, Pakistan said three civilians were killed on their side of the de facto border in Kashmir after Indian soldiers opened fire.
New Delhi says Pakistan initiates cross-border firing to help anti-India rebels cross into Indian-administered Kashmir to launch attacks.
However, Islamabad says it provides only diplomatic support to the Kashmiri campaign for self-determination.
Pakistan’s army says Indian troops using heavy weapons have targeted civilians from across the Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing one villager and wounded 4 others.
A military statement said Monday that Pakistani troops reacted with a “befitting response,” returning fire at the Indian forces.
Meanwhile, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people has threatened to sue Pakistan’s foreign minister for suggesting he drank wine at the White House.
Hafiz Saeed, designated a global terrorist by the US and who has a $10 million bounty on his head, accused minister Khawaja Asif of “slander” according to a legal notice from his lawyer seen by AFP.
Asif, speaking with the dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism Steve Coll in New York last week, was reacting to US President Donald Trump’s claim this year that Pakistan was giving safe haven to “agents of chaos”.
The notice issued by Saeed’s lawyer, dated Sept 29 but obtained by AFP Monday, slammed Asif for the comments and described Saeed as a “patriotic Islam loving Muslim”.
“It is shocking to know that (the) Foreign Minister of my country is accusing Hafiz Muhammad Saeed of taking wine!” it said.