In two separate clashes in Indian-controlled Kashmir, six accused rebels and one Indian paramilitary officer were killed, only days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the disputed territory.
According to authorities, a gunfight broke out early Friday on the outskirts of southern Jammu city after police and soldiers saw a group of militants in Sunjwan, a garrison town.
In the subsequent gun battle, two fighters and a paramilitary officer were killed, while at least two troops and two police officers were wounded.
Troops were examining the area where five soldiers and one civilian were killed in an incident in 2018.
The murdered gunmen “were planning a huge attack,” Dilbag Singh, the director-general of police, told reporters.
Modi is set to speak in Sunjwan town on Sunday, 15 kilometres (nine miles) away, in his first public appearance in the disputed territory since New Delhi stripped it of its semi-autonomous status and divided it into two directly ruled territories in 2019.
To avoid local dissent, authorities imprisoned thousands of people and imposed the world’s longest internet blackout.
The decision to modify Kashmir’s status was made, according to the Indian administration, in order to integrate the Muslim-majority area with the rest of the country and bring development.
Since then, the region has remained on edge as authorities enacted a series of new legislation that opponents and many people believe could alter Kashmir’s majority-Muslim demography.
Modi’s prior travels to military facilities after Kashmir’s status was changed were to celebrate a Hindu festival with soldiers.
The armed men, Singh claimed, were a “Pakistani suicide squad,” and their entrance was likely part of a “plot to undermine” Modi’s visit.
“But timely action by our alert forces have foiled the bid,” he said. The police chief did not offer any evidence to back up his claim.
Separately, government forces clashed with a group of rebels holed up in Malwah, a village northwest of the region’s major city of Srinagar, for the second day, killing four militants, according to police.
After police and military attacked a cluster of civilian homes in Malwah on Thursday, the firefight began. Four troops and a police officer were also injured.
One of the slain insurgents was identified as Yousuf Kantroo, the longest-surviving rebel commander in Kashmir, according to the police. The instances were not confirmed by a third party.
Both India and Pakistan claim the entire divided territory of Kashmir.
Since 1989, rebels in the Indian-controlled area have been fighting New Delhi’s sovereignty. The majority of Muslim Kashmiris support the insurgents’ goal of unifying the region, either under Pakistani sovereignty or as a separate country.
The fighting has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, rebels, and government soldiers.
Kashmir is India’s most militarised territory, with almost half a million military and paramilitaries stationed there.
