SRINAGAR - An Indian army colonel was among four people killed in a gunbattle with suspected freedom fighters in Indian-occupied Kashmir on Tuesday, police said, the highest ranking military officer to die in fighting in the disputed Himalayan region in more than a year.
The colonel was leading an operation against suspected freedom fighters in a village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district when he came under fire.
A policeman and two ‘militants’ were also killed in the encounter, police superintendent Tahir Saleem said.
Government forces had laid seige to a house in Hundoora village, 50 kilometres south of Srinagar, acting on information that a suspected freedom fighter was inside, the officer said.
“He (the freedom fighter) opened fire as he found himself trapped. During the ensuing gunbattle two freedom fighters and an army colonel were killed,” the top police officer told a news agency on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media. Another police officer later died of injuries sustained in the firefight, while two suspected rebels were also killed during the encounter, an officer said. The officer killed on Tuesday was awarded a gallantry medal the previous day for his services in Held Kashmir.
Tens of thousands of troops are deployed in the Held Kashmir to subside the movement against Indian rule. Kashmiri groups opposed to New Delhi rule have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan. The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.
The battle occurred shortly after US President Barack Obama left India after a three-day visit to New Delhi. Security had been high in Held Kashmir and India’s other restive areas during the visit, and for Republic Day on Monday which marks the birth of modern India.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan since the two countries won independence from Britain in 1947. Both claim the scenic Himalayan territory in full.
Violence has abated during the last decade but armed encounters between Kashmiri fighters and government forces occur regularly and resentment among the people of Held Kashmir against Indian rule is deeply rooted.
On January 15, government forces killed five suspected rebels during a gunbattle in a forested area a few kilometres from the site of Tuesday’s encounter.