Indian troops kill five militants in Kashmir as hundreds of Hindus flee

SRINAGAR: Indian safety forces killed not less than 5 militants in Indian-ruled Kashmir on Tuesday as lots of of Hindus flee the disputed Muslim-majority area after a wave of violence, officers mentioned.

Three Hindus and a Sikh had been killed by suspected militants in Kashmir final week, prompting a police crackdown on what they mentioned was the focusing on of spiritual minorities.

No less than 5 Indian troopers and two militants had been killed on Monday in a sequence of gunbattles in Kashmir, subsequent to the Jammu area which collectively comprise a federally administered territory.

The Himalayan area is claimed in full however dominated solely partially by nuclear-armed neighbors India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

In two separate gunbattles in southern Kashmir on Tuesday, troops killed 5 suspected militants, together with one linked to a killing of a Hindu within the area’s major metropolis of Srinagar, police mentioned.

Kashmir valley’s police chief, Vijay Kumar, mentioned the 5 had been from The Resistance Entrance (TRF), which Indian authorities consider is backed by Pakistan.

Islamabad denies the cost that it helps the insurgency in Kashmir, saying it solely supplies diplomatic and ethical help for the Kashmiri folks.

The violence has pushed lots of of Kashmiri Hindus out of the valley, together with a few of 4,000 who returned underneath a federal-government scheme after an exodus within the Nineties.

Sanjay Tickoo, a Hindu group chief based mostly in Srinagar, mentioned that greater than 1,700 folks had left.

“We gained’t return … except the scenario normalizes,” a Kashmiri Hindu employed by the federal government mentioned at a protest in Jammu, declining to be recognized.