NEW DELHI — While attackers killed two members of a government-sponsored militia elsewhere in the disputed region, officials said Friday that two suspected militants were killed in a gunfight with government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The area, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan but is split between them, has seen a rise in violence in recent weeks. Following a tip regarding the presence of a group of militants, the Indian military reported that a combined team of soldiers and police conducted a raid on a village close to northwest Sopore town late Thursday.
According to a military statement, the militants “fired indiscriminately” at the troops, resulting in a gunfight that claimed two lives. It stated that troops were still searching the area. The incident was not independently confirmed.
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In the distant southern Kishtwar region, attackers killed two members of the “Village Defense Group,” a government-run militia, late Thursday, according to officials.
The killings were attributed by police to rebels in Kashmir who were opposing Indian rule.
On Thursday, the two were kidnapped from a wooded area where they had gone to graze cattle. According to police, their bodies were discovered late Thursday.
The militia was first established in the 1990s to protect isolated Himalayan villages from anti-Indian rebels that were difficult for government troops to swiftly reach. The militia was mostly disbanded as the insurgency in their regions decreased and as some of its members became notorious for their brutality and violations of human rights.
However, authorities resurrected the militia and started rearmament and training thousands of villagers, including some teenagers, following the killing of seven Hindus in two attacks in a remote mountain village close to the heavily guarded Line of Control that separates India and Pakistan’s Kashmir.
In a social media statement, the Kashmir Tigers, who Indian officials claim are a branch of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group based in Pakistan, took credit for the two deaths. Independent verification of the statement was not possible.
Since 1989, militants in the Indian-controlled region of Kashmir have opposed the government of New Delhi. The rebels’ aim to unite the region, either under Pakistani control or as an independent nation, is supported by a large number of Muslim Kashmiris.
India maintains that the militancy in Kashmir is terrorism supported by Pakistan. Many Kashmiris view the conflict as a legitimate struggle for freedom, and Pakistan refutes the accusation. The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, rebels, and government forces.
