SRINAGAR, Dec 11: Thirteen more people have been killed in continuing separatist-related violence in Indian-held Kashmir despite a two-week truce by the Indian and Pakistan armies on the Line of Control of the disputed region, police said on Thursday.
The truce, which came into effect on Nov 26, continued to hold, going into a third week, police said.
A police spokesman claimed Indian troops shot dead two suspected militants during a night-long encounter in Ratsan village in central Budgam district.
“A few houses also suffered some damage,” the spokesman said.
Two more militants were shot dead in a gunbattle with troops near Bijbehara town, 40 kilometres south of Srinagar, police said.
In another incident, a senior rebel named by police as Farooq Ahmed was shot dead in the southern Doda district on Thursday in a joint operation by police and the Indian army.
Police said Ahmed was a divisional commander for the region’s dominant rebel group Hizbul Mujahideen.
In two other incidents, Indian troops shot dead three rebels in the northwestern districts of Kupwara and Baramulla overnight, police said.
Two more militants were shot dead in the districts of Udhampur and Rajouri overnight by the Indian troops, police said.
Police said suspected militants shot dead a Muslim civilian in the Wachi village of southern Pulwama district overnight, while a Muslim couple was killed by suspected militants in Poonch district, further south.
Police said the motive behind the three killings was not known.
They reported clashes between Indian troops and rebels at three other places in Kashmir. The fighting was continuing late Thursday.
Both New Delhi and pro-Pakistan rebels have said there will be no truce within Indian-held Kashmir, where an anti-India insurgency has raged since 1989 at a cost of tens of thousands of lives.
The latest killings bring to at least 92 the number of people who have died in separatist-linked violence in the region since the truce began.
The toll includes 58 rebels, 17 civilians and 17 soldiers and policemen.
Kashmir is in the grip of a 14-year-old anti-Indian insurgency that has so far left 40,000 people dead by official count. Separatists put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000.—AFP
