Indian troops battle gunmen in Kashmir, several wounded

Indian security personnels deployed before Kashmiri Shiite Muslim mourners take part in a Muharram procession on the eighth day of Ashura in Srinagar on July 15, 2024, after the state government allowed the Muharram procession through its traditional route for the second time in three decades. Agence France-Presse

NEW DELHI — Troops in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir hunted Tuesday for militants after several soldiers were critically wounded in ferocious gun battles, with Indian media reporting four had died.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and the disputed northern territory has suffered an uptick in attacks in the past two months.

The Indian army’s 16 Corps said security forces had launched an operation Monday evening in Doda district.

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“Contact with terrorists was established…(a) heavy firefight ensued,” it said in a statement. “Initial reports suggest injuries to our bravehearts.”

The army gave no further details of casualties, and there was no official confirmation of deaths.

But Indian media widely reported five soldiers had been “critically” wounded, and the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported on Tuesday that four later died of their wounds.

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The army said “additional troops” had been brought in.

“Operations are continuing”, it added.

The clashes come a day after the Indian army killed three suspected militants in Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Sunday.

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full and have fought multiple conflicts for control of the Himalayan region.

New Delhi and Islamabad accuse each other of stoking militancy and espionage to undermine each other.

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency since 1989, demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels.

Earlier this month, gunmen killed five soldiers after ambushing an army convoy, and two other soldiers and six suspected militants were killed in separate clashes.

In June, nine Indian Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman opened fire on a bus carrying them from a shrine in the southern Reasi area.

It was one of the deadliest attacks in years and the first on Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir since 2017, when gunmen killed seven people in another ambush on a bus.