Troops shot dead a top-ranking militant in restive Indian Kashmir and security forces battled Islamic rebels ahead of next week’s Republic Day national holiday, police said yesterday.
Rebel violence routinely increases in the revolt-hit Muslim-majority state ahead of the annual public holiday.
Police said Tariq Lone, a leading militant belonging to the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahedin, was killed late on Friday in a gunbattle with Indian troops in southern Kishtwar District.
PHOTO: EPA
“Lone, alias Azhar, was a wanted militant,” a police spokesman said, adding that security forces were engaged in two other gunbattles yesterday against militants in south Kashmir.
The fresh fighting came amid calls by separatists opposed to Indian rule to observe the holiday as a “black day.”
Republic Day marks the date in 1950 when India’s new republican Constitution came into effect. India gained independence from Britain in 1947, but went through a transitional phase.
Kashmiris have spurned the celebrations since the separatist insurgency began two decades ago in the divided Himalayan region.
Kashmir had been relatively stable in recent months.
But there has been a spike in violence over the past two weeks, including a militant siege of a hotel in the Kashmir summer capital of Srinagar that resulted in the death of two militants, a policeman and a civilian bystander.
Inspector General of Police Farooq Ahmed said in Srinagar that security forces were ready to deal with any militant threats.
“Police have intensified frisking and stepped up their vigilance to keep militants at bay,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed said there were reports that militants could stage attacks on Republic Day itself.
“Police are more concerned given the recent spate of militant attacks,” he said.
The insurgency, which erupted in 1989 against Indian rule, has claimed more than 47,000 lives, according to a government count.
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