SRINAGAR, India: Soldiers in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir battled insurgents on Wednesday, the army said, with a captain killed in clashes in the disputed territory.

The Indian army, in a post on social media platform X, offered its “deepest condolences” over the death of the officer.

The violence is the latest in a string of clashes in the Hindu-dominated southern Jammu region this year.

Gunbattles erupted last Tuesday in forests near the tourist resort of Patni Top and local media reported a civilian and a suspected militant were also wounded.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, with each side claiming it in full.

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh called a meeting with army, security, and intelligence chiefs on Wednesday after the latest clashes in Jammu, which had been relatively peaceful for the past two decades.

Thousands of additional troops, drones and sniffer dogs have been deployed in the mountainous terrain, where new army posts are being set up.

The fighting comes as the region prepares for the expected announcement of the first local assembly elections in a decade.

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency since 1989, demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels.

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.