Seven people – six suspected rebels and one soldier – were killed in clashes in two villages in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said on Thursday (December 30th).
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Police said the six rebels killed were from the Pakistan-based jihadist group Jaish-e-Mohammad, and two of them were of Pakistani nationality. The clashes, which occurred in two villages in the region overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, also left one dead and three gunshot wounds among government forces, according to the same source.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. The two countries claim the entire Himalayan territory. For more than three decades, rebel groups have been fighting Indian soldiers, demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan. These clashes killed a total of 264 people in 2021, up from 321 in 2020, according to a count from the South Asia Terrorism Portal site. Indian-controlled Kashmir has experienced renewed tensions since New Delhi’s revocation of its semi-autonomous status in August 2019.