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INDIA-KASHMIR-PAKISTAN-UNREST
Eight killed as Kashmir reels from deadly year
SRINAGAR, India, Nov 25, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Eight people were killed Sunday
in violence in Indian-administered Kashmir, capping off one of the deadliest
weeks this year in a region already suffering its worst bloodshed in a
decade.
Kashmir-based rights monitors say 528 people have died this year from armed
conflict in the disputed Himalayan territory claimed in full by both India
and Pakistan, including 145 civilians.
It is the deadliest year since 2009, said the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of
Civil Societies, underscoring a worsening security situation in the Muslim-
majority region controlled by India and half a million of its troops.
Police said Sunday that six alleged militants and a soldier were killed in
a shootout in Shopian, a southern district of the Kashmir Valley.
A civilian was also killed when Indian forces fired shots into a crowd of
protesters that gathered near the scene of the shootout, senior police
official Munir Ahmad Khan told AFP.
Elsewhere in Kashmir 10 suspected militants and four others — including a
teenage girl and a prominent separatist activist — were gunned down in
separate clashes, taking the week’s total death toll to 22.
Police said the activist was killed by rivals but separatist leaders said
the government orchestrated his assassination.
The police official, Khan, said the high number of casualties in 2018 was
the result of “good actionable information” leading them to armed rebels and
their hideouts.
But critics said Indian forces were escalating tensions in the restive
region ahead of general elections next year in order to look tough on
Pakistan and militancy.
“Dead bodies of Kashmiris unfortunately sell well in Indian elections,”
said Khurram Parvez, programme coordinator at the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of
Civil Societies.
“The mindset dominant in India now is that by escalating violence, the
people of Kashmir will be pressured to surrender.”
The UN human rights chief, in a first-of-its-kind report in June, called
for a major investigation into abuses in Kashmir and the “chronic impunity”
for violations perpetrated by troops there.
The findings accused Indian troops of 145 unlawful killings, far surpassing
the 20 people estimated to have been killed by militant groups over the study
period.
New Delhi rejected the report, blasting it as “fallacious”.
India has long accused Pakistan of arming rebel groups in Kashmir, which
has been split between the rivals since 1947.
Rebel groups have long waged an armed insurgency against Indian forces in
Kashmir, demanding an independent state or merger with Pakistan.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1745 hrs