|
Eight People Killed in Kashmir Violence
SRINAGAR, India, June 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Eight people, including two soldiers and four activists, were killed in Indian-held Kashmir in scattered violence over the past 24 hours, police told news agencies Monday.
Two Indian army soldiers and an armed activist of hard line Kashmiri separatist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, died in an overnight encounter in Surankote, a town 430 kilometers (270 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, police said.
Troops later recovered an AK rifle, a radio set and a hand grenade from the spot.
On Monday morning, another gun battle erupted in the same locality between police and separatists, leading to the death of another militant.
Suspected separatists shot dead an army contractor, a resident of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state at Shopian, 50 kilometers south of Srinagar, while he was shopping, police said.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group, has threatened to kill contractors who are against working for the army.
Three more people, including two separatists, were killed elsewhere in Kashmir, police said.
Two members of the police's counter insurgency group were critically injured when separatists ambushed a patrol group on the outskirts of Tral, 40 kilometers south of Srinagar.
Two brothers were injured when suspected Muslim separatists opened fire at a Hindu house in the village of Gundi in the southern Kashmir district of Rajouri overnight, police said.
Muslim-dominated Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan in 1947 but is still claimed by both. Many Kashmiris favor total independence.
Some 35,000 people have died since India started a violent crackdown against a 12-year old Muslim separatist movement in the Indian-held zone.
Human rights and separatist groups put the number at double this figure and blame it on India's excessive use of force.
Hindu-dominated India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Islamic activists and helping them cross over into India. Pakistan denies the charge.
Pakistan, which controls the northern third of the Himalayan state, calls for a referendum so that Kashmiris can choose between India and Pakistan.
|
