Three Indian soldiers, one civilian killed in Kashmir

Three Indian soldiers and a woman have been killed in a suspected militant attack on a military convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

According to reports, the troops were returning from a search operation on Thursday when unidentified armed men opened fire on their convoy in the region’s Shopian district, wounding six soldiers and killing a woman on the spot, said a police spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Three of the wounded soldiers succumbed to their injuries later on “at the army hospital in Srinagar.”

The spokesperson added that the woman, who lived near the area where the ambush occurred, had been hit by a stray bullet.

The Shopian district was where a popular pro-independence leader, Burhan Wani, was killed in a gun battle with Indian troops last July. The incident sparked months of anti-India unrest in the territory, which left nearly 90 civilians and several policemen dead and thousands of people injured. Sporadic clashes have continued since then.

The incident and the subsequent unrest have also strained the ties between Pakistan and India, both of which have been laying claims to the entire Kashmir but control parts of it since their partition and independence from Britain in 1947.

Human rights groups accuse India of using indiscriminate force against protesters in Kashmir.

SS