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SRINAGAR, July 4: Three Indian soldiers and a handicapped civilian were among 10 people killed during another round of violence in occupied Kashmir, police said on Thursday.
The deaf and dumb civilian was killed in crossfire as Indian soldiers and Mujahideen fought in the Banihal area of the southern Doda district on Thursday.
An Indian soldier and a freedom fighter were killed in another shootout in Doda.
The encounter took place when Indian soldiers, acting on a tipoff, raided a Mujahideen stronghold in the Chatroo area.
The soldier and the Mujahid were killed on the spot while another guerilla was wounded in the shootout.
Indian forces combed the area but could not find the injured man, the police spokesman said.
He identified the dead guerilla as a member of Harkat-ul-Jehad-Islami.
Two Mujahideen and an Indian soldier were killed near the Line of Control in the Poonch district on Wednesday night, police said.
Another freedom fighter and a soldier of the Border Security Force (BSF) were killed during a separate gunbattle in the district of Pulwama, police said.
Police said unidentified men shot dead a school teacher and a shopkeeper in the districts of Baramulla and Kupwara.
The killing of the teacher sparked a protest in the village of Sogam, 120 kilometres north of Srinagar.
BANK ROBBERY: Unidentified gunmen stole more than 13,000 dollars on Thursday from a bank in Srinagar in a daylight attack that left two guards injured, police said.
Four youths barged into a branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, stole the money and escaped in a car after beating up the guards, who were taken to hospital for treatment.
Police and paramilitary forces sealed off the area to track down the robbers, as soldiers tried to trace the vehicle.
DEMINING BEGINS: Indian troops have started to remove some of the thousands of mines laid in held Kashmir over the past few months, defence officials said on Thursday.
The demining is taking place in the Jammu region in areas which could be flooded by monsoon rains — due to reach the held state on July 15 — which would make it more likely that the mines could be detonated by accident.
“Partial demining has been started in view of the ensuing monsoon season which usually causes deluge in some areas,” a defence official said.
“Demining is necessary in flood prone areas because under rain water, mines slide and the entire mining chart gets changed.”
“If mines are allowed to slide, villagers and even soldiers could get killed.”
But the official insisted that the demining did not mean that there was a process of de-escalation along the LoC.
A defence source said that the removed mines would be reinstalled but not in flood prone areas.
Military sources have previously said both sides of the 440-kilometre Line of Control (LoC), and the 185-kilometre international border are covered in mines.
Previously, only the LoC was mined but following the December attack on India’s parliament, the international borders have also been packed with explosives.
The US-based rights group, Human Rights Watch, described it as one of the largest mine-laying operations anywhere in the world in recent years.
At least 150 Indian soldiers have been killed in accidental landmine explosions since January, while villagers have been injured and many forced to leave their land for fear of explosions.
India is not a signatory to the 1997 International Campaign to Ban Landmines treaty.
RADARS DEPLOYED: India has deployed a home-made radar to track down what it calls infiltration from Pakistan.
A defence source said on Thursday “the Battle Field Surveillance Radar Short Range has been evaluated and tested at various altitudes. It meets all the requirements (of the army) and has been deployed in forward areas”.
The radar was developed by the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment based in India’s IT and aviation hub of Bangalore.
“The project took 24 months to complete. The radar was built using local technology and components,” the source said. “The work (on the radar) started immediately after Kargil. Kargil was an eye-opener,” the source added, referring to the 1999 Kargil episode.
“The radars can detect multiple targets, such as a man walking or crawling and low-flying helicopters or light and combat vehicles,” the source said, adding that they had already been handed over to the Indian army.
He declined to comment on whether the radars were already deployed in held Kashmir.
In Bangalore, the Times of India quoted George Cleetus, chief of the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, as saying that the indigenously built radar was “user-friendly”.
“It can be installed on (a) tripod and operated by a single soldier in five minutes,” Cleetus said.
“It is a potential sensor for the Border Security Forces and Coast Guard, besides the army,” he said.—AFP
