Top Leader Among Four Killed in Indian-Held Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India, Aug 30 (News Agencies) - Indian security forces have shot dead four Muslim combatants in Kashmir, including a commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, an army spokesman said Thursday.
Local commander Abu Hamza was killed at Charkut, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the state's summer capital Srinagar, he said.
The spokesman said Hamza was originally from Pakistan-administered Kashmir and had carried out many attacks on Indian security forces.
Another Kashmiri fighter was shot dead after he crossed over the Line of Control - the de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan - into the Indian side in the northern district of Baramulla.
Two more Kashmiris have been killed in Budgam and Baramulla districts since Wednesday evening, the army spokesman said.
Indian forces in Kashmir have killed a total of 1,059 Muslim fighters from the beginning of the year to August 15th, and 605 of those were from Pakistan or other Muslim countries, he said.
A defense spokesman said Pakistan had intensified shelling in the Baramulla district in the past 24 hours.
"Pakistani troops have been resorting to artillery firing on Indian positions since Wednesday," the spokesman said.
"Their aim is to push in more and more militants ahead of heavy snowfall which cuts off the passes through which they enter India," he added.
The conflict in Kashmir has claimed at least 35,000 lives since 1989.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, since independence from Britain in 1947.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of aiding and abetting "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir by giving training and arms to Kashmiris seeking self-determination.
Islamabad rejects the allegation, saying it only extends "moral and diplomatic" support to those who are fighting an "indigenous war of independence".
