KASHMIR – Two Indian soldiers have been killed alongside six rebels in two separate gun battles in the Indian-administered Kashmir, according to the police, raising concerns about the security situation in the disputed Himalayan region.

Kashmir police’s Inspector General Vidhi Kumar Birdi told the AFP news agency on Sunday that security forces “carried out two different operations” in villages in the Kulgam district in the disputed territory in which two soldiers were killed. “We have retrieved the bodies of two terrorists from Modergram, and four others from Frisal Chinnigam,” said Birdi.

The deadly incident is the latest in an uptick of attacks in the Muslim-majority region, where armed rebellion erupted in the late 1980s against Indian rule. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years. India regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting and arming rebels in the region, a charge Islamabad denies.

India and Pakistan both claim the Muslim-majority Himalayan region in full but govern part of it. They have fought three wars for its control. (Aljazeera)…[+]