Indian army kill 2 suspected rebels in Kashmir.
Indian troops in Kashmir killed two suspected rebels along the heavily militarized de facto border with Pakistan as they campaigned for local elections in the disputed region, the army said on Monday.
- Kashmir’s first local elections in a decade begin on September 18
- Kashmir has been under direct Indian rule since 2019 amidst ongoing insurgency
Since independence from British rule in 1947, Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan, who claim the entire Himalayan territory.
Indian-administered Kashmir is preparing for its first local elections in a decade. The three-phase voting begins on September 18.
The Indian army’s White Knight Corps said “two terrorists were neutralised” in the heavily forested Nowshera area.
The army said munitions and automatic rifles were seized. About 500,000 Indian soldiers are stationed in the region, fighting a 35-year insurgency since 1989 that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels.
The territory has not had an elected government since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped it of its partial autonomy and placed it under direct rule from New Delhi.
A total of 8.7 million people are eligible to vote in the local assembly, with results due to be known on October 8.
Ahead of the vote, Modi will address a rally of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the territory’s mostly Hindu southern Jammu region.
Rebels in the restive region have been fighting Indian forces for decades, seeking either independence or merger with Pakistan. More than 50 soldiers have been killed in clashes with insurgents, mostly in Jammu sector, in the past two years.
India and Pakistan have accused each other of fomenting insurgency and espionage to undermine the other, and the nuclear-armed rivals have fought multiple conflicts for control of the region.
