Eight more killed in tense Kashmir
Eight people were killed yesterday in violence in Indian-administered Kashmir, capping off one of the deadliest weeks this year in a region already suffering its worst bloodshed in a decade.
Kashmir-based rights monitors say 528 people have died this year from armed conflict in the disputed Himalayan territory claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, including 145 civilians. It is the deadliest year since 2009, said the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies, underscoring a worsening security situation in the Muslim-majority region controlled by India and half a million of its troops.
Police yesterday said that six alleged militants and a soldier were killed in a shootout in Shopian, a southern district of the Kashmir Valley. A civilian was also killed when Indian forces fired shots into a crowd of protesters that gathered near the scene of the shootout, senior police official Munir Ahmad Khan told AFP.
The police official, Khan, said the high number of casualties in 2018 was the result of "good actionable information" leading them to armed rebels and their hideouts. But critics said Indian forces were escalating tensions in the restive region ahead of general elections next year in order to look tough on Pakistan and militancy.
"Dead bodies of Kashmiris unfortunately sell well in Indian elections," said Khurram Parvez, programme coordinator at the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies.
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