Nine killed in Kashmir gun battle

World
Europe

00:54

Indian forces on Monday killed three militants, including the suspected organizer of a suicide bombing in the disputed Kashmir area that fueled tension between India and Pakistan, police said.

Five Indian troops and an Indian civilian were also killed in the Monday clash.

The suicide bomb attack on a paramilitary police convoy in Pulwama last Thursday killed at least 40 men, the deadliest single assault on Indian forces in decades in the region.

The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack. India accuses Pakistan for harboring the group, which Pakistan denies.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, facing an election that must be held by May, is under domestic pressure for decisive action against Pakistan. Modi has promised a strong response and says he has given the military a free hand to tackle cross-border militancy.

Flames and smoke billow from a residential building where militants had taken refuge during a gun battle in Pulwama, February 18, 2019. /VCG Photo

The three militants killed in the clash on Monday were all Pakistani nationals and members of JeM, according to two security sources.

"The encounter is still in progress and the security forces are on the job," police said in a statement.

But the 17-hour engagement, which ended shortly before 1330 GMT, came at a cost for India's security services.

Four Indian soldiers and a policeman were killed, while nine troops were wounded, including a brigadier, one of the army's top roles, and a deputy inspector general of police.

Family members and colleagues of a policeman who was killed in a gun battle in Pulwama pray near his coffin during a wreath-laying ceremony in Srinagar, February 18, 2019. /VCG Photo

"They have protection. Our officers and men are exposed, whereas they're in the built up area, hiding," said K. Rajendra Kumar, a former director general of police in Jammu and Kashmir.

Security force sources said one of the dead militants had been identified as Abdul Rashid Gazi, who went by the alias Kamran Bhai and is suspected of playing a leading role in organizing Thursday's attack.

Indian troops had earlier cordoned off Pinglan village in Pulwama. An indefinite curfew has been imposed and police have asked people to stay indoors. Mohammad Yunis, a journalist in Pulwama, said troops were searching the village and civilians trapped in houses were being evacuated.

An Indian Army soldier carries a rocket launcher near the site of a gun battle between suspected militants and Indian security forces in Pulwama, February 18, 2019. /VCG Photo

On Sunday, police said Indian forces had detained 23 men suspected of links to the militants who carried out the Thursday bombing.

India withdrew trade privileges offered to Pakistan after the bomb attack and has warned of further action.

With tension mounting, Pakistan withdrew its envoy to India for consultations, a spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said on Twitter on Monday.

Indian demonstrators shout slogans against Pakistan during a protest at India Gate in New Delhi, February 17, 2019. /VCG Photo

The Thursday bomb attack has sparked outrage in India with calls for revenge circulating on social media.

The anger has also spread to India's two big obsessions: cricket and its Bollywood film industry.

Several cricket fans and a sport official have called on India to boycott a World Cup match against Pakistan in June, and the All India Cine Workers Association called for a "total ban" on Pakistanis working in India's film industry, though they have been largely blacklisted from Bollywood since a similar attack in Kashmir in 2016 in which 19 soldiers died.

Source(s): Reuters