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
Thousands in Kosovo march against war crimes trials on 18th anniversary of independence declaration
- Protesters, many wrapped in red and black Albanian flags, braved cold and snowy weather in the capital, Pristina, to voice their opposition to the proceedings in The Hague
- PM Albin Kurti added that ‘the KLA-led war was pure, liberation (struggle) and an anti-colonial war ... a just struggle of an occupied and oppressed people under apartheid’
PRISTINA, Kosovo: An air of defiance marked Kosovo’s independence celebrations on Tuesday as thousands of people joined a march in support of former fighters who are facing trial at a Netherlands-based court for alleged war crimes during a 1998-1999 separatist war from Serbia.
Protesters, many wrapped in red and black Albanian flags, braved cold and snowy weather in the capital, Pristina, to voice their opposition to the proceedings in The Hague against former president and rebel leader Hashim Thaci and three others accused of atrocities during and after the conflict that killed some 13,000 people.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kosovo’s security forces paraded in Pristina as part of the independence ceremonies, and Parliament held a special session.
The war started in 1998 when the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army launched its struggle for independence and Serbia responded with a brutal crackdown. The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days in 1999, eventually forcing it to pull out its troops from the territory.
Serbia still does not recognize the 2008 declaration of independence of Kosovo and this has been a source of persistent tension in the volatile Balkan region. As both Kosovo and Serbia seek European Union membership, they have been told they must normalize ties before joining.
Prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague — which formally is part of Kosovo’s judicial system although seated abroad — have asked for a maximum 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and the other defendants. Thaci also faces a separate trial on charges of intimidating witnesses that will begin later this month.
Officials and protesters in Kosovo have criticized the proceedings as political and designed to strike a false balance with Serbia whose political and military leaders previously had been tried and convicted of war crimes in Kosovo by a separate UN court.
Protesters at Tuesday’s march held banners reading “History cannot be rewritten” and “Freedom for the liberators.” They arranged metal fences around a landmark independence monument and placed a sign reading ”Kosovo in Prison” on top of it.
President Vjosa Osmani said in a statement that “truth cannot be changed by attempts to rewrite history or to tarnish and devalue the struggle of Kosovo’s people for freedom.”
Prime Minister Albin Kurti added that “the KLA-led war was pure, liberation (struggle) and an anti-colonial war ... a just struggle of an occupied and oppressed people under apartheid.”
In Belgrade, a Serbian government liaison office for Kosovo described the independence declaration 18 years ago as a “flagrant violation of international law.” The statement alleged “systematic terror” and persecution against minority Serbs in Kosovo.
The United States and most EU countries are among more than 100 nations that have recognized Kosovo’s independence while Russia and China have backed Serbia’s claim on the territory.
Thaci resigned from office in 2020 to defend himself against the 10 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The court and an associated prosecutor’s office were created after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, following allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. The organ harvesting allegations haven’t been included in indictments issued by the court.
