Two Indian soldiers killed in militant attack on Kashmir base

Srinagar (India) (AFP) – Suspected rebels attacked Sunday an army headquarters in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing at least two soldiers, after infiltrating across the defacto border with Pakistan, police said.

An unknown number of heavily armed militants snuck before dawn into the army’s infantry base that houses hundreds of soldiers in Uri, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of the region’s main city of Srinagar.

“At least two soldiers have been killed and eight wounded in the attack on the army’s brigade headquarters,” a senior police officer who was not authorised to speak to media told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Soldiers were still firing at the militants holed up in the base, but there was no information on whether any of the attackers had been killed, the officer said. 

A witness in Uri town said he could see smoke billowing inside the nearby infantry headquarters and continuous rounds of heavy gunfire could be heard.

Militants first attacked a frontline base close to the border known as the Line of Control or LoC before moving onto the headquarters, army spokesman Colonel S. D. Goswami said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a series of tweets that he had spoken to the region’s military and political leaders about the attack and he cancelled planned trips to Russia and the United States. 

The Himalayan region has been in the grip of deadly unrest for more than two months, with protesting residents clashing almost daily with security forces, in the worst violence to hit the region since 2010.

At least 87 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in the protests against Indian rule, sparked by the killing of a popular rebel leader in a gun battle with soldiers on July 8.

Kashmir has been divided between India and its arch rival Pakistan since the two gained independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full.

Several rebel groups have for decades fought Indian soldiers — currently numbering around 500,000 — deployed in the territory, demanding independence for the region or its merger with Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.