Daily Times

SRINAGAR: Three Kashmiris young people were killed in “an overnight gun battle with soldiers” in a village in Indian-held Kashmir, an army spokesman said on Monday.,

Rajesh Kalia said troops cordoned off the village near the tourist resort of Pahalgam after receiving a tip that fighters were hiding out in a private home there.

“On specific intelligence army soldiers cordoned off the village on Sunday evening and the gun battle started,” Kalia said.

A police officer said soldiers using mortar fire destroyed the house.

Hundreds of thousands of troops are deployed in Indian-administered Kashmir, where Kashmiri freedom fighters have been fighting for decades for independence or a merger with Pakistan.

The restive Himalayan region suffered a rise in violence last year after the killing in July of popular young leader Burhan Wani in a gun battle with soldiers.

The two nuclear-armed neighbours have twice gone to war over the territory since gaining independence from British rule in 1947.

Pakistan condemned the killing of the three Kashmiri youth.

“Pakistan strongly condemns systematic and brutal killing of Kashmiris by the Indian occupation forces in IOK and once again urges the UN, HR Organizations across the globe and international community to act to stop bloodshed of Kashmiris by India,” Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria in a press release said.

As a continued act of state terrorism, India was blatantly committing crimes against humanity in IHK against defenceless Kashmiris.

Since the current phase of uprising started in the wake of Kashmiri youth leader, Burhan Muzaffar Wani’s extra-judicial killing on July 8, 2016, hundreds of Kashmiris have been martyred.

Indian forces had mercilessly used lethal weapons with the intent to kill. They have deliberately used pellet gun shots injuring over 7,000 Kashmiris. The eye injuries caused by the pellet gun shots had blinded, completely or partially, over a thousand, including children.

The constant terrorist activities of the RSS and its affiliates in the IHK with the state’s backing, arbitrary arrests of thousands of Kashmiris with their fate remaining unknown, continued detention of Hurriyat leaders, disappearances and fake encounters, and blatant use of draconian laws to silence Kashmiris’ voice were deplorable and called for accountability of the perpetrators.

“It is a matter of great disappointment that India remains adamant in not allowing independent investigations into grave human rights violations in IOK as repeatedly called for by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, OIC, various countries’ legislative assembly members and civil society members,” he added.

The international community should take steps to ensure independent investigations in the IHK without further delay, he concluded.