Rebels storm Indian paramilitary camp in Kashmir; 3 killed

Shah Abbas, Related Press

Up to date 1:51 am, Tuesday, October three, 2017

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A bunch of rebels preventing Indian rule stormed a paramilitary camp close to the airport within the disputed area of Kashmir within the early morning darkness Tuesday — a brazen assault concentrating on one of many area’s most strategic and well-guarded zones that left no less than three lifeless.
Troopers engaged the rebels in a gunbattle that was nonetheless raging 9 hours later. Police stated no less than two suspected militants and one border guard officer have been killed.

The rebels, wearing army fight uniforms, started the assault by hurling grenades and spraying automated gunfire on the camp, which homes a battalion of India’s Border Safety Drive, police stated. Close by residents stated they heard dozens of blasts and gunfire.
Beforehand, the camp served as one in every of a number of infamous interrogation facilities the place authorities detained, questioned and allegedly tortured suspected rebels and their sympathizers. The camp sits on a plateau subsequent to Srinagar’s major airport, separated solely by barbed wire.
Counterinsurgency police and paramilitary commandos rushed to the scene and armored autos dotted the whole highway resulting in the airport. Troops encircled the primary constructing of the camp, the place no less than one militant was holed up and firing out on the troopers, stated a police officer.
The officer, who spoke on situation of anonymity consistent with division coverage, stated the militants breached a number of layers of excessive safety inside and outside the camp whereas exchanging intense gunfire with authorities forces.
Apart from the fatalities, no less than three troopers have been injured, in accordance with police officer S.P. Vaid.
Officers stated the airport, which is run and managed by the army, was protected. Nonetheless, authorities suspended flights for about 4 hours earlier than resuming operations round midday. At the least one early morning flight from New Delhi was canceled and three others delayed.
Many high former bureaucrats, police officers and politicians have residences within the space.
No anti-India insurgent group instantly commented on the preventing. Most assaults goal army and paramilitary convoys or police outposts, however anti-India rebels have staged comparable assaults in current months, together with one lethal assault in August wherein 4 police officers, 4 paramilitary troopers and two suspected militants have been killed after rebels stormed a police camp, triggering daylong preventing.
Final 12 months, the rebels mounted their deadliest assault on a army base lately after militants sneaked into an important Indian army base and killed no less than 19 troopers. The 4 attackers have been additionally killed. India later retaliated, saying its Particular Forces carried out a “surgical strike” in opposition to militants contained in the Pakistani-controlled a part of Kashmir. Islamabad rejected the Indian account, saying it was routine cross-border fireplace.
Since then, the nuclear-armed rivals have engaged in common firing alongside their de facto frontier.
Anti-India rebels in Muslim-majority Kashmir have been preventing for independence or merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989, with the violence and subsequent Indian army crackdown claiming no less than 70,000 lives since then.
The area is split between India and Pakistan, which each declare the territory in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of arming and coaching the rebels, which Pakistan denies.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep within the area, and most of the people help the rebels’ trigger whereas additionally taking part in civilian road protests in opposition to Indian management.