SRINAGAR: Indian soldiers in Kashmir killed two suspected rebels along the highly militarised de facto border with Pakistan, the army said today, during campaigning for local elections in the disputed region.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory in full.
India-controlled Kashmir is gearing up for the first local assembly elections in a decade, with voting in the three-phased poll beginning on Sept 18.
The Indian army’s White Knight Corps said two terrorists have been neutralised, a term they use indicating the men had been killed, in the forested Nowshera region.
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About 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in the region, battling a 35-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels since 1989.
The territory has been without an elected government since 2019 when its partial autonomy was cancelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and it was brought under New Delhi’s direct rule.
A total of 8.7 million people will be eligible to vote for the region’s assembly, with results expected on Oct 8.
Ahead of the vote, Modi is expected to address rallies for his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the southern Jammu areas of the territory, which has a sizeable Hindu population.
Rebel groups in the restive region have fought Indian forces for decades, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
In the past two years, more than 50 soldiers were killed in clashes with rebels mostly in the Jammu district.
India and Pakistan accuse each other of stoking militancy and espionage to undermine each other and the nuclear-armed rivals have fought several conflicts for control of the region.
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