At least four Indian soldiers were killed in a gun battle with rebels fighting against Indian rule in Indian-administered Kashmir, the latest in a series of deadly attacks.
The troops were ambushed in the forests of the southern Doda district in the Jammu division late on Monday, the army said in a statement
Government forces were conducting search operations in the area based on intelligence when the shooting began. “Contact with terrorists was established … heavy firefight ensued,” the army said.
Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha, the top political official in the Himalayan region, said forces would “avenge [the] death of our soldiers”.
In a statement, a group calling itself the Kashmir Tigers claimed responsibility for the assault saying it “laid an ambush and opened fire” on Indian forces in an attack that lasted 20 minutes. It claimed the death toll was higher than officially announced.
The incident brings the number of soldiers and police killed this year on the Indian side of the disputed territory to 17.
A security official, who asked not to be named, told AFP news agency fighters have shifted operations from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley to the Hindu-dominated southern Jammu area, where “counterinsurgency measures are not as strong”.
‘We will deal with it’
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh offered condolences to relatives of the dead, saying he was “anguished to learn about the cowardly attack” on the soldiers who made the “supreme sacrifice”.
The ambush came a day after the Indian Army said it killed three fighters as they tried to cross from the Pakistan-controlled side of the heavily militarised Line of Control in Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Monday’s attack was the latest in a flurry of violence in the region.
Last week, five soldiers were killed in the nearby Kathua district when fighters ambushed an army vehicle. In June, nine people died when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims was attacked.
The region’s chief of police, RR Swain, told reporters the spate of attacks aims to return violence to the levels that prevailed in the decade from 1995.
“They have found a gap for sure,” he said on Monday, referring to the infiltration of fighters into the region. “We will deal with it.”
Since 1989, armed groups have fought for Kashmir’s independence or merger with neighbouring Pakistan. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels, and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in its entirety but rule it in part. India blames Pakistan for training, funding, and pushing fighters into the region it controls from across the ceasefire line – an accusation that Pakistan denies.
