At least 2 security personnel killed, 12 injured in attack in Indian Kashmir
New Delhi, Dec 13 (EFE).- At least two security forces personnel were killed and 12 others were injured on Monday when insurgents opened fire on a police bus in a high-security zone in Srinagar, the capital of India-administered Kashmir.
“Among the injured police personnel, 01 ASI (assistant sub-inspector) & a Selection Grade Constable #succumbed to their injuries & attained #martyrdom,” Kashmir police tweeted.
According to the police, the attack took place when a group of insurgents “fired upon a police vehicle” close to Zewan in Srinagar’s Pantha Chowk, a high-security area on the outskirts of the city, injuring 14 personnel, including the two who died later at a hospital.
The identity of the assailants or how they could enter the area – which houses several camps of armed security forces – still remains unclear.
The attack comes three days after insurgents killed two security personnel during a gunfight in Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Indian Kashmir has witnessed a significant surge in violence in recent months, including targeted killings of migrant workers and members of minority communities in the region.
The targeted killings, claimed by a little-known secessionist group The Resistance Front – which authorities have linked with the Islamist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba – have triggered panic among minorities in India-administered Kashmir.
Thousands of Kashmir, most of them Hindus, fled from the region after a series of attacks against religious minorities carried out by militants in 1989-1990.
Situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority state and the region is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan despite being divided between the two when they gained independence from Britain in 1947.
Tensions have spiked further after Indian government revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir and put it under the direct rule of New Delhi in August 2019. EFE
