SRINAGAR: Kashmiri fighters attacked a police post in India-held Kashmir on Tuesday killing four officers, police said, two days after Indian soldiers killed two teenage fighters in the disputed territory.

In the latest violent incident of the region’s bloodiest year since 2009, the assailants mounted a surprise attack in Zainpora village of southern Kashmir valley and stole four rifles.

They killed three police officers instantly and critically wounded another, police official Swayam Prakash Pani said. The fourth officer died later at a military hospital.

“They (fighters) fled the spot with four service rifles from the policemen,” Pani said.

Armed group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the assault.

Muhammad Hassan, calling himself the group’s spokesman, issued a statement to a local news agency saying its cadres killed three “Indian forces” and critically wounded several. Officials say militants have snatched at least 270 weapons, most of them automatic assault rifles, from police officers during similar attacks since 2014. Around 70 have been taken since July 2016.

Kashmir-based rights monitors say more than 500 people have died this year from armed conflict in the disputed Himalayan territory, including some 150 civilians.

On Sunday Indian troops shot dead a 14-year-old, the youngest fighter killed in the conflict, and two other fighters including a 17-year-old in a shootout outside the city of Srinagar.

Several armed groups have for decades been fighting about 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory New Delhi controls, seeking independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.

According to a prominent monitoring group, the fighting has left more than 70,000 dead, mostly civilians, since 1989.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2018