SRINAGAR: Indian government forces killed six fighters in a series of so-called counterinsurgency operations in Occupied Kashmir, police said on Thursday.

The four deadly and separate incidents starting on Wednesday came as violence in the disputed Himalayan region has increased in recent weeks.

Four fighters were killed in two separate gunfights with Indian troops in southern Kashmir’s Pulwama and Kulgam districts early on Thursday, the Indian army said.

On Wednesday, troops apprehended a senior Kashmiri fighter, Mehraj-ud-din Halwai, in the northwestern Handwara area, and after interrogation he led them to a hideout where he was killed in a firefight, police claimed in a statement.

At the hideout, Halwai picked up his hidden AK-47 rifle and started firing indiscriminately upon the joint search party which led to an encounter, the statement alleged.

It was the second such incident in 10 days.

On June 29, police claimed a Kashmiri fighter being held in custody was killed during a gunfight between government forces and another fighter after he was taken to a house where he allegedly had concealed a rifle in the disputed region’s main city, Srinagar.

Many Kashmiri fighters have been killed in the past when they were taken by government forces to recover weapons, in what rights groups and residents have termed extrajudicial killings.

Meanwhile, the Indian army claimed its soldiers killed a fighter on Wednesday who was “infiltrating” into Occupied Kashmir from Azad Kashmir.

It was the first such incident reported since Feb 25, when Pakistan and India agreed to reaffirm their 2003 ceasefire accord, which has silenced the normally tense Line of Control.

There was no independent confirmation of any of the four incidents.

Fighters in Kashmir have been opposing Indian rule since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the goal of uniting the disputed territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2021