Two civilians killed during firefight in Indian Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India: Two civilians, including a woman, and two rebels were killed and six other people wounded during a firefight between rebels and government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir on Saturday, police and hospital authorities said.
The gunbattle broke out after soldiers and special counterinsurgency police forces surrounded a neighborhood in the southern Dialgam village, acting on a tip off that armed militants were hiding in the area.
“The lady was killed while we were laying a cordon,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Muneer Ahmed Khan said.
The fighting ended when the two militants were killed, the local Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid said.
The militants had a few villagers in the building with them, and police officials said they were using them as human shields.
Witnesses disputed that, saying that local residents went to the house where the rebels were holed up to help them as the soldiers arrived in the area.
“They (the civilians) told the soldiers from inside the house that either let the rebels go or kill us as well,” said a resident of Dialgam who declined to give his name.
As gunshots were heard in the area hundreds of villagers came out on to the streets shouting antiIndia slogans and throwing stones at soldiers in their attempts to break the cordon and help the rebels escape.
Police said in a statement they rescued 17 people from the site of the gunbattle but locals said the rebels, before being killed, let the civilians go.
Authorities cut off some mobile phone services in the area following the firefight.
Clashes between government forces and civilians have worsened since the death last July of Burhan Wani, a hugely popular rebel commander. His death anniversary next week is expected to escalate tension.
India last month deployed two additional army battalions — about 2000 troops — to troubled regions in the southern Kashmir area.
Meanwhile, a prominent Kashmir rebel leader recently blacklisted as a terrorist by the US vowed on Saturday to continue fighting until India relinquishes control of the disputed Himalayan region.
“We will not end this fight without liberating Kashmir from India,” Syed Salahuddin, who heads the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group, said amid tight security in a news conference in Muzaffarabad, the Pakistanicontrolled part of Kashmir.
The US State Department classified 71-year-old Salahuddin as a “global terrorist” on the eve of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last month, a decision the militant leader said was only made to appease India. He said Hizbul Mujahideen only targets Indian forces, Daesh and Al-Qaeda have no presence in Kashmir.
“Donald Trump’s decision will be thrown out if anyone challenges it in American courts,” he said. “No other Western nation has endorsed what this crazy Donald Trump has done,” he said.
Salahuddin called on the UN to implement its resolutions and give Kashmir’s people the right to vote on independence or merging with Pakistan. He said Hizbul Mujahideen may consider peace talks with India if Russia or China can guarantee that such talks would produce results.
Salahuddin later led a rally in the city and praised Pakistan for continued support in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of backing Kashmir insurgents in the region split between the two nations, a charge Islamabad denies. The nuclear-armed South Asian rivals claim the territory in its entirety, having fought two of their three wars over it since 1947.