At least 6 dead after clashes with rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir
Four police officers and two suspected rebels have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir during a drawn-out firefight that also left several police personnel wounded, security forces said.
The Indian army's Rising Star Corps said in a social media post on Saturday that 'relentless operations' led to the 'elimination of two terrorists,' a term commonly used for rebels opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir.
The clash began Thursday in the rugged and forested area of Kathua in the south of the disputed territory when a police foot patrol was ambushed while searching for militants, leaving four policemen dead, police chief Nalin Prabhat told reporters late on Friday.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full.
Prabhat claimed the slain militants, who were believed to have escaped a cordon by security forces four days earlier, were from Pakistan, without sharing further information on their identities.
'We will not sleep till we stop such activities of our neighbor,' Prabhat said, referring to Pakistan.
India regularly blames its neighbor for pushing rebels across their heavily militarized unofficial border in Kashmir to launch attacks on Indian forces.
Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir's struggle for self-determination.
India has an estimated half a million soldiers permanently deployed in the territory, and rebel groups have fought for decades demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.
Fighting had decreased since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government imposed direct control of the territory from New Delhi after cancelling its partial autonomy.
But last year, thousands of additional troops, including special forces, were deployed across the territory's mountainous south, following a series of deadly rebel attacks that left more than 50 soldiers dead in three years.
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