At least 4 police, 3 suspected militants killed in Kashmir fighting

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — At least four police officials and three suspected militants were killed in a protracted gunbattle in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Friday.

The fighting began on Thursday after police counterinsurgency officials and soldiers cordoned off a forested area in Jammu region’s southern Kathua district on a tip that anti-India insurgents were hiding there, police said.

In the fierce fighting in which combatants used guns, grenades and rockets, three police officials and three suspected rebels were killed while at least six police and two soldiers were injured on Thursday, police said. The body of another policeman was spotted on Friday.

Officials said the bodies of the fallen combatants were yet to be retrieved as the fighting raged in the area.

Security officials believe the group engaged in the fighting is likely the one that escaped a security cordon after a brief exchange of gunfire some 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from the area on Sunday.

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

But since 2019, the territory has simmered in anger when New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms while intensifying counterinsurgency operations.

While Kashmir Valley, the heart of the anti-India rebellion, has witnessed many militants killed in counter-rebel operations, remote areas of Jammu region including Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua have seen deadly attacks against Indian troops in the past few years. At least 60 soldiers have been killed in such attacks.

The Associated Press