5 things to know about India’s strife-torn Kashmir

Militants killed 17 soldiers in a raid on an army base in Indian-administered Kashmir Sunday, the worst attack for years in the restive Himalayan region wedged between India and Pakistan.
Here are five things to know about the territory:
1. Kashmir has been divided between India and neighboring Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 — but both claim it in full and two of their three wars have been fought over it. Rebel groups are fighting for independence of the Indian-administered portion of the region or its merger with Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people have died since the revolt that broke out in 1989, most of them civilians.
2. Several militant groups have been fighting Indian troops for decades in the Muslim-majority region. About 200 militants, most of them local, are thought to be active across the Kashmir Valley, down from several thousand at the height of the insurgency in the 1990s. Hizbul Mujahideen is one of the largest rebel groups, while the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front is among those demanding the region’s independence.
3. Violence has erupted on almost daily basis in Kashmir since the killing of a popular young rebel leader in a gun battle with soldiers on July 8. Stone-throwing residents protesting against Indian rule have clashed with security forces in the worst unrest since 2010, when weeks of protests convulsed the region. Security experts and India’s government accuse Pakistan of sending rebels across the defacto border into Indian Kashmir to further destabilize the territory. At least 87 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in the clashes between residents and security forces since the rebel leader was killed.
4. Authorities also banned prayers in the city of Srinagar’s main mosque to mark the Muslim festival of Eid this month in a bid to defuse tensions.
India’s government has cracked down on the protests, saying there is no room for violence. But it is also under pressure over the number of civilian casualties. It has agreed to curb security forces’ use of shotguns loaded with pellets on protesting crowds that have left thousands with severe eye injuries.
5. New Delhi has also accused Islamabad of stoking the recent unrest, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi squarely holding Pakistan as the “one single nation” responsible for spreading “terrorism” in South Asia.

Source: Arab News