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At least 4 Indian soldiers killed in gun battle in Kashmir | Politics news

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When the shooting started in the Doda forests of Jammu region, government troops were conducting search operations.

At least four Indian soldiers were killed in a firefight with rebels fighting Indian rule in Indian-administered Kashmir, the latest in a series of deadly attacks.

The troops were ambushed late Monday in the forests of southern Doda district in Jammu division, the army said in a statement.

When the shooting started, government troops were conducting search operations in the area based on intelligence. “Contact was made with terrorists … heavy firefights ensued,” the army said.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the top political official in the Himalayan region, said the armed forces would “avenge the deaths of our soldiers”.

In a statement, a group calling itself Kashmir Tigers claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it “laid an ambush and opened fire” on Indian forces in an attack that lasted 20 minutes. It claimed the death toll was higher than officially announced.

The incident brought the number of soldiers and police officers killed on the Indian side of the disputed territory this year to 17.

A security official who wished to remain anonymous told AFP news agency that the fighters had shifted their operations from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley to the Hindu-majority South Jammu region, where “counter-insurgency measures are not as strict.”

“We will cope with it”

India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh expressed his condolences to the families of the dead and said he was “shocked to learn of the cowardly attack” on the soldiers who had made “the supreme sacrifice.”

The ambush came a day after the Indian army said it had killed three militants as they attempted to cross the border from the Pakistan-controlled side of the heavily militarized Line of Control in Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

Monday’s attack was the latest in a wave of violence in the region.

Last week, five soldiers were killed when militants ambushed an army vehicle in the nearby Kathua district. In June, nine people died when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims was attacked.

The region’s police chief, RR Swain, told reporters that the wave of attacks was aimed at returning violence to the levels that prevailed in the decade beginning in 1995.

“They have definitely found a loophole,” he said on Monday, referring to the infiltration of fighters into the region. “We will take care of it.”

Since 1989, armed groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence or its annexation to neighboring Pakistan. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government troops have been killed in the conflict.

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in its entirety but control it only partially. India accuses Pakistan of training, funding and sending fighters into the region, which it controls from across the ceasefire line – an accusation Pakistan denies.

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