Ten Indian security force personnel and a Muslim civilian were killed yesterday in the deadliest landmine explosion in months in Kashmir amid a surge in violence since the Indian premier visited the region last month.
"There has been a landmine explosion in the village of Batpora [in Pulwama district] in which at least nine Indian soldiers have died," a spokesman said.
He said the soldiers were riding in a private jeep when it ran over the mine killing all 11 people on board, including a policeman and a civilian.
"All the eleven people died instantly with a few of them being blown to pieces," a police spokesman said, adding the village has been sealed by army and paramilitary forces and searches launched to arrest the militants.
Kashmir's pro-Pakistan rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin claimed responsibility for the attack and said 12 soldiers were killed, Srinagar-based Current News Service said. The militants claimed to have snatched six AK assault rifles, three radio sets and a light machine gun from the dead soldiers.
The soldiers were returning to camp from a counter-insurgency operation late Saturday.
It was the deadliest mine explosion since May when 29 soldiers died on a highway in the northern state. Hizbul also claimed responsibility for that attack.
In a separate incident, one or more militants barricaded themselves inside a mosque in Baan village, near Kulgam township, after fleeing a search operation by troops, a police spokesman said.
A team of Indian soldiers had entered the village Saturday evening on a tipoff that militants were hiding there. Troop reinforcements have been rushed to the site and the entire village has been cordoned off.
Troops and the militants were continuing to exchange fire but so far there had been no casualties.
Violence has surged since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Kashmir last month, although nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan began a peace process last year to resolve their dispute over the Himalayan region, which they each hold in part and both claim in full.
Indian troops have been fighting since 1989 to crush an insurrection against New Delhi's rule in the Muslim-majority region.
More than 40,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence since 1989, according to official figures. Separatists say the death toll is at least double that.
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
RSS