SRINAGAR, India, Sept 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – An Indian soldier and five
suspected militants have died in fighting in Kashmir, the army said Monday,
just days after high-level talks with Pakistan were cancelled over tensions
in the disputed territory.
Colonel Rajesh Kalia said two suspected rebels died Sunday when the army
detected a group trying to cross the de facto border dividing Kashmir into
Indian and Pakistani sectors.
Three more suspected militants, and an Indian soldier, were killed Monday.
The incidents in northern Tangdhar area, near the heavily militarised
Himalayan frontier dividing the nuclear-armed neighbours, could not be
independently verified.
Last week India abruptly cancelled a meeting with Pakistan, just 24 hours
after agreeing to the rare encounter on the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly in New York.
High-level talks between India and Pakistan are rare and the meeting,
between their foreign ministers, would have been the first for nearly three
years.
New Delhi said it cancelled the talks after the “brutal killings of our
security personnel by Pakistan-based entities”.
Last week three policeman were abducted and killed by militants in
Kashmir, and a border guard was also murdered in the divided region.
India also objected to the release of Pakistani postage stamps in July
“glorifying a terrorist and terrorism”, saying it revealed their “evil
agenda”.
Among the commemorative stamps was one of Burhan Wani, a charismatic
Kashmiri militant commander killed by Indian troops in July 2016.
His death sparked a wave of violent protests in the part of Kashmir
administered by India.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan called it an “arrogant and negative
response” to his calls for the resumption of peace talks.
India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said Khan had written to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi last week about a “readiness to discuss terrorism” but
had shown his “true face”.
India has long accused Pakistan of arming rebel groups in Kashmir, which
has been divided between the two countries since the end of British colonial
rule in 1947.
India also accuses Pakistan of financing the deadly 2008 militant attacks
in Mumbai.
Rebel groups have since 1989 been fighting Indian police and soldiers
deployed in Kashmir. They seek its unification with Pakistan or its
independence.
Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.