Violence kills 162 people in Kashmir this year

By Zahid Rafiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) - At least 162 people have been killed in various incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir in the first three months of 2019, a human rights report said Friday.

According to figures released by the Coalition of Civil Society, the fatalities include 83 Indian forces personnel, 58 militants, and 21 civilians.

The numbers are significantly higher than those in the first three months of 2018, during which 119 people had been killed.

This is the first time in 29 years of armed conflict in the region that more Indian armed forces personnel have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir than militants in a three month period, the report added.

The report placed the number of paramilitary personnel killed in the February 14 suicide bombing on a convoy in south Kashmir at 48.

Seven Indian personnel committed suicide and three were killed in fratricidal killings.

Among the civilian deaths, seven people were killed by unidentified gunmen, six were killed in cross-border shellings and four in grenade and IED explosions.

Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.