SRINAGAR, India: Anti-India rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed two police officers in an attack Friday in the disputed region’s main city, officials said. Elsewhere in the Himalayan region, three suspected rebels and a policeman were killed in two gunbattles.
The violence came a day after diplomats from more than 20 countries stationed in India’s capital concluded a two-day visit to the region.
Police said militants sprayed bullets at two policemen near a police station in Srinagar city. Both died later at a hospital.
A short video of the attack circulated on social media shows a man in a pheran, a Kashmiri tunic worn during the winter, taking out what appears to be an automatic rifle and shooting at the policemen. He then quickly runs away.
Police and soldiers searched the area and later detained a young man for questioning.
No rebel group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a separate incident, a gunfight erupted shortly after scores of counterinsurgency police and soldiers launched an operation late Thursday in a village in southern Shopian district following a tip that three militants were there, Inspector-General Vijay Kumar said.
All three were killed in an exchange of gunfire early Friday, Kumar said. He said police recovered two rifles and a pistol.
Residents said government forces used explosives to blast a civilian house during the fighting, a common tactic by Indian troops in Kashmir.
In another gunbattle, militants killed a policeman and injured another in western Beerwah area early Friday, Kumar said.
Both India and Pakistan claim the divided territory of Kashmir in its entirety. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
New Delhi describes the Kashmir militancy as Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.
Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
India police: 3 police, 3 rebels killed in Kashmir fighting
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India police: 3 police, 3 rebels killed in Kashmir fighting
- The violence came a day after diplomats from more than 20 countries stationed in India’s capital concluded a two-day visit to the region
- Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country
Dreams on hold for Rohingya children in Bangladesh camps
- Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017
COX’S BAZAR: Books tucked under their arms, children file into a small classroom in Bangladesh’s vast refugee camps, home to more than a million Rohingya who have fled neighboring Myanmar.
“They still dream of becoming pilots, doctors or engineers,” said their teacher Mohammad Amin, standing in front of a crowded schoolroom in Cox’s Bazar.
“But we don’t know if they will ever reach their goals with the limited opportunities available.”
Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017. The campaign, which saw Rohingya villages burned and civilians killed, is the subject of a genocide case at the UN top court in The Hague, where hearings opened on Monday.
In the aftermath of the 2017 exodus, international aid groups and UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, rushed to open schools.
By 2024, UNICEF and its partners were running more than 6,500 learning centers across the Cox’s Bazar camps, educating up to 300,000 children. But the system is severely overstretched. “The current system provides three hours of instruction per day for children,” said Faria Selim of UNICEF. “The daily contact hours are not enough.”
Khin Maung, a member of the United Council of Rohingya which represents refugees in the camps, said the education on offer leaves students ill-prepared to re-enter Myanmar’s school system should they return. “There is a severe shortage of teachers in the camps,” he said.
Hashim Ullah, 30, is the only teacher at a primary school run by an aid agency.
“I teach Burmese language, mathematics, science and life skills to 65 students in two shifts. I am not an expert in all subjects,” he said.
Such shortcomings are not lost on parents. For them, education represents their children’s only escape from the risks that stalk camp life — malnutrition, early marriage, child labor, trafficking, abduction or forced recruitment into one of the armed groups in Myanmar’s civil war.
As a result, some families supplement the aid-run schools with extra classes organized by members of their own community.
“At dawn and dusk, older children go to community-based high schools,” said father-of-seven Jamil Ahmad.
“They have good teachers,” and the only requirement is a modest tuition fee, which Jamil said he covered by selling part of his monthly food rations.
“Bangladesh is a small country with limited opportunities,” he said. “I’m glad that they have been hosting us.”
Fifteen-year-old Hamima Begum has followed the same path, attending both an aid-run school and a community high school.
“I want to go to college,” she said. “I am aiming to study human rights, justice, and peace — and someday I will help my community in their repatriation.”
But such schools are far too few to meet demand, especially for older children.
A 2024 assessment by a consortium of aid agencies and UN bodies concluded that school attendance falls from about 70 percent among children aged five to 14, to less than 20 percent among those aged 15 to 18.
Girls are particularly badly affected, according to the study.
