Zahid Rafiq
18 June 2019•Update: 18 June 2019
SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir
Two militants and an Indian soldier were killed in a gunbattle in southern Kashmir on Tuesday morning, the Indian army said.
“Two terrorists eliminated today. Weapons and warlike stores recovered. One soldier martyred in the operations,” Defense spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia told reporters.
The gunfight in Marhom village of Anantnag, the third-largest city of the insurgency-hit state, is the second in the last 24 hours.
An army officer was killed and another was wounded in a gunfight in Achabal, southern Kashmir on Monday evening. The army said a foreign militant was also killed.
Separately, two soldiers succumbed to their wounds from Monday's bombing in the state, the army said.
Monday's attack came after an intelligence report was shared with Indian authorities by Pakistan that an attack to avenge the death of militant commander Zakir Musa was likely, daily The Indian Express reported.
Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.
Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.
Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.
Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.
