40 killed in election violence in Kashmir

INDIA: Over 40 people, including 11 security forces personnel, were killed and dozens of others were injured earlier this week…

INDIA: Over 40 people, including 11 security forces personnel, were killed and dozens of others were injured earlier this week in attacks by Muslim militants in northern India's disputed Kashmir region after the third of four rounds of voting to elect an assembly in the war-torn state.

Security officials said neighbouring nuclear rival Pakistan, which holds one-third of Kashmir and claims the rest, had intensified support to the state's 13-year-old militancy to disrupt the state elections. Voting ends next week, and results will be announced on October 10th.

Insp Gen G.S. Gill of the paramilitary border security force, deployed to ensure trouble-free polls, said Pakistan was trying to push additional militants into Kashmir to sabotage the elections and fuel the insurgency for an Islamic homeland that has claimed over 36,000 lives.

"The enemy (Muslim militants) is consolidating its position in Kashmir," he said.

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Security officials claim that around 3,000 armed insurgents are fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

The paramilitary commander said that since July 19th, shortly before the elections were announced, the security forces had engaged 41 groups of armed insurgents in encounters as they tried to enter India from Pakistan across the line of control that divides Kashmir between the two rivals.

Pakistan maintains that all cross-border movement of militants has stopped - a claim India challenges.

Yesterday the army foiled an infiltration attempt along the line of control in southern Kashmir's Rajouri-Poonch area, killing eight terrorists, but lost an officer in the extended firefight.

Officials said the encounter took place after soldiers waiting in ambush saw a group of heavily armed militants trying to enter Indian territory in the Balakot sector early in the morning.

Elsewhere in Kashmir, at least six people, including five paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force personnel, were injured yesterday in a land mine blast in southern Pulwama district. Police sources said the bus carrying the soldiers was destroyed.

Rahul Bedi

Rahul Bedi

Rahul Bedi is a contributor to The Irish Times based in New Delhi