SRINAGAR: Gunmen in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir shot and killed a police officer on Monday, an official said, the latest in a string of deadly clashes in the disputed Muslim-majority region.
Suspected rebels fired on a unit of India’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the heavily forested area of Udhampur in the southern Jammu district.
“Security forces have been on a hunt for a suspected group of rebels in the area for weeks after a clash,” an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The official said the attack happened as officers set up a new security post in the area, where there has been increased militant activity.
India’s election commission announced on Friday it would hold local polls in the region for the first time in a decade.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, with each side claiming it in full.
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.
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.
Voting for the region’s assembly will be held over three stages between September 18 and October 1, with a total of 8.7 million people eligible.
Some see the polls as a critical step in returning the vote to the people to choose their leaders.
However, some hard-line separatists, who demand independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan, oppose elections because they see them as lending validity to Indian control.