Five police officers and two suspected rebels were killed in separate gun battles in Indian-administered Kashmir this week, officials in the disputed region said Thursday.
Two Indian army officers and a police officer conducting a security operation in a forest area in south Kashmir were ambushed and killed on Wednesday. Two armed suspects shot at the soldiers.
Indian police in Kashmir said their forces had surrounded the two men, who they said belonged to the Pakistan-based Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Police forces continued their work “with steadfast determination,” she posted on X (formerly Twitter).
In addition, four more people – an Indian soldier, a police officer and two suspected rebels – were killed in a prolonged exchange of fire on Tuesday in the mountainous region of Rajouri (southern Indian Kashmir).
Gunmen first shot and killed an army sniffer dog that had led soldiers to the rebels.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which have claimed sovereignty over the entire Himalayan territory since independence in 1947.
These two rival countries have fought three wars for control of this region, and an armed insurgency in the Indian-administered part has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989.
New Delhi accuses Islamabad of sponsoring the attacks, which Pakistan denies.
The government of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s partial autonomy status in 2019.