SRINAGAR, India: Two people have died in a shootout in the disputed territory of Indian Kashmir, officials said Monday, the first attacks since the army suspended operations against the militants for Ramadan.
A soldier was killed late Sunday when militants attacked an army camp in Kakapora, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar, said army spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia.
A civilian driving past was also killed in the exchange, a police officer said.
Three soldiers were later wounded when a roadside bomb was detonated underneath a military vehicle near Shopian district.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the twin attacks.
The assaults were the first in the Kashmir Valley since the army declared a nearly 30-day halt to military operations, the first of its kind in the tense region for nearly two decades.
The decision meant Indian troops would pause operations against insurgents and halt door-to-door house searches, but would retaliate if attacked.
Despite the suspension of operations, violence has not abated in the region bordering Pakistan, which also controls part of the disputed Himalayan territory but claims it in full, like India.
The Indian army claimed it killed five militants on Sunday as they tried to cross the heavily militarised border.
On May 17, the army claimed three suspected militants were killed in a forest area near the border.
Both incidents could not be independently verified.
In a separate clash along the border, a heavy exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani forces this month left 16 dead on both sides, forcing around 80,000 citizens living on the Indian side to flee.
India deploys an estimated 500,000 soldiers in Kashmir, which has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947.
Rebel groups have been fighting for an independent Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan since 1989.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of fueling the insurgency that has left tens of thousands of civilians dead, a charge Islamabad denies saying it only provides diplomatic support to Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
![]()
Two killed in Kashmir militant attack on Indian army camp
Two killed in Kashmir militant attack on Indian army camp
Trump suspends green card lottery program that let Brown University, MIT shootings suspect into US
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the US, many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on US soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the US, many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on US soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
Latest updates
Recommended
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.