Indian paramilitaries in Srinagar, November 2, 2024. MUKHTAR KHAN / AP The Indian army announced on Saturday November 2 that it had killed three suspected separatist militants during two separate skirmishes in the disputed region of Kashmir (North-West). The first gunfight broke out after Indian troops moved to check “suspicious movements” in Anantnag in south Kashmir. The Chinar Corps, a unit of the Indian army, said on X that a joint operation had been launched in the area. “The terrorists opened fire indiscriminately,” the unit said in its statement. The troops responded effectively, resulting in the elimination of two terrorists. » Another suspected militant was shot dead Saturday morning in another exchange of gunfire with police and soldiers in Srinagar, the region’s main city, a senior police official told Agence France-Presse . The clash took place in the Khanyar district, while police were searching for armed militants. First elections since 2014 Kashmir, with a Muslim majority, has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, and each of the two countries claims it in its entirety. New Delhi and Islamabad accuse each other of fueling militancy and espionage in the province. The two rival countries, equipped with nuclear weapons, have clashed several times for control of this region. At least 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in Kashmir, where rebel groups have been waging an insurgency since 1989, demanding independence or integration into neighboring Pakistan, in fighting that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels. Last week, suspected separatist militants ambushed an army vehicle and killed five people, including three soldiers. A week earlier, armed men killed seven people near a construction site for a strategic road tunnel to Ladakh (northwest India), a high-altitude Himalayan region bordering China. The Indian military says more than 720 rebels have been killed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the territory’s limited autonomy in 2019. In early October, Kashmir, home to some 12 million people, organized its first elections since 2014 with a view to creating a regional assembly. Le Monde with AFP Reuse this content
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