In a spate of violent confrontations in Indian-occupied Kashmir, three suspected rebel fighters and one Indian soldier were killed, a grim escalation just days after Interior Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the region.
On Saturday, the Indian military stated that soldiers engaged in a gunfight at a distant forest belt of Kishtwar, south Kashmir, which began on Wednesday. Brigadier JBS Rathi, who is a top army commander, stated that Indian soldiers demonstrated “great tactical acumen” while conducting the operation, which resulted in the neutralization of three militants. The White Knight Corps of the army took to social media to state that arms and “war-like stores” were seized from the encounter site.
In the second incident late last night, a soldier was killed in Sunderbani district along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto divide between Indian-held Kashmir. The White Knight Corps said that soldiers had managed to deflect an attempted penetration in that area.
Muslim-dominated area of Kashmir has long been a battlefield of dispute after India and Pakistan became independent states in 1947, claiming the territory completely but possessing a part of it. India enjoys a huge force presence there comprising about 500,000 personnel as an insurgent movement erupted there in the late 1980s.
The war has cost thousands of lives, the majority of them civilians, as various rebel groups have attempted to either gain independence or merge into Pakistan. In 2019, a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report identified allegations of Indian human rights violations in Kashmir and called for an investigation into the claims. The report followed earlier calls for a world investigation of abuse in the region.
Tensions have remained high after Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019, leading to widespread discontentment, civil rights suppression, and an escalation of military action. The region saw thousands more troops deployed last year in the wake of a rash of bloody guerrilla attacks that killed over 50 soldiers over a three-year period.
India repeatedly accuses Pakistan of facilitating cross-border infiltration of insurgents, a claim Islamabad rejects, stating it only assists the Kashmiri people’s cause for self-determination.
