Srinagar, May 03 (UMM): An Army Colonel, a Major, three security personnel and two Kasmiri separatists were killed in an encounter at a village in Handwara in north Kashmir, officials said on Sunday.
Army officers Col Ashutosh Sharma and Major Anuj, and Jammu and Kashmir Police Sub-Inspector Shakeel Qazi were among the deceased, they said.
According to Indian news outlets, Col Sharma was leading a team to rescue civilians who had been taken hostage by the separatists hiding in a house at the Chanjmullah area of Handwara in frontier Kupwara district of north Kashmir on Saturday, the officials alleged.
In the early hours of Sunday, a major offensive was launched by the security forces as there had been no contact with the Colonel or his team, the officials said.
Jammu and Kashmir joined India through an Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, which provided it a special status with its own statute and flag. Following accession, a dispute erupted between Pakistan and India. India took this matter to the UN Security Council, which passed resolution 39 (1948) and established the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP), asked Government of India to reduce its forces to minimum strength, and established the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the cease-fire line, and mandated a plebiscite.
However, due to mistreatment by the Indian security forces, many Kashmiris want to separate from India, and Kashmiri groups are fighting for independence.
Contrary to UN resolution 39 (1948), there are more than half a million Indian Security forces currently stationed in Jammu and Kashmir.
Human rights organisations have claimed constant human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory administered by India, including mass killings, forced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse for political repression and suppression of freedom of speech.
UN human rights report on Kashmir in June 2018 has called for international inquiry into ongoing human rights violations and abuses in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Rights Groups referred in Wikipedia; about “100,000 people have died since 1989 while the official figures from Indian sources state the estimates of number of civilians killed due to the insurgency in the range of 16,725 to 47,000”
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in its Foreign Ministers Meet in March 2019, adopted a resolution on Jammu and Kashmir, condemning the “atrocities and human rights violations” in the state.
The resolution on Kashmir used phrases such as “Indian terrorism” and “mass blindings” by Indian security forces on protesting youths.
