SRINAGAR, Nov 18: A fierce gunbattle between Indian soldiers and suspected rebels erupted near an Indian army headquarters in Kashmir on Tuesday, leaving a federal policeman dead and two others wounded, officials said.
Indian soldiers and paramilitary troops were battling gunmen who attacked a security post of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Kashmir’s main city Srinagar, a defence spokesman said.
“Two columns of the army and the CRPF have jointly launched an operation to flush out the militants,” Lieutenant-Colonel Mukhtar Singh told Reuters.
A spokesman for the CRPF said one federal policeman died in hospital while two others were injured.
Witnesses said they heard many explosions since 6:00 p.m. (0530pm PST) when the firing began.
A little-known Kashmiri militant group, al-Mansurain, called newspaper offices in Srinagar, saying it had carried out the attack on a security post near the headquarters of the Indian army’s 15th Corps.
Guerillas fighting New Delhi’s rule in the disputed territory have repeatedly targeted the heavily guarded headquarters and, in a major attack in 1999, killed an army spokesman in his office.
The gunbattle erupted on the same day that the state government announced that militant violence had fallen since a new government took power last November promising to bring a “healing touch” to Kashmir.
VIOLENCE ON THE VANE: The government of the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir said on Tuesday separatist violence had eased over the past year and its policy of reconciliation in the bloodied region had paid off.
A state government spokesman said in a statement that guerilla violence in the state since a coalition government led by chief minister Mufti Mohammed Syed took power last November was 16 per cent less than in the previous 12 months.
But the government statement did not refer to the sharp upsurge in guerilla attacks in the run-up to the state elections, which experts said could have skewed the comparative figures.
More than 750 people died in a three-month period beginning August 2002 when New Delhi announced plans to hold elections which separatist and militant groups denounced.
“The healing touch philosophy has helped improve the situation, the people’s minds have changed, the atmosphere is relaxed with greater sense of security,” the state government said in a newspaper advertisement to mark a year in office this month.
When he took over as chief minister, Syed promised to end human rights violations and corruption and release prisoners.
Tens of thousands of soldiers are deployed across the Himalayan region to put down the 14-year revolt.
The Jammu and Kashmir government statement said 425 security men were killed over the last 12 months compared with 550 during the preceding year. It said security forces killed 1,501 militants during the period, but did not give figures for the guerillas killed in the previous year.
But a faction of Kashmir’s main separatist alliance All Parties Hurriyat Conference, led by the hardline Syed Ali Shah Geelani, said human rights violation by Indian soldiers was unabated even during the current Muslim holy month of Ramazan.—Reuters