2 police officers gunned down, 12 wounded in Kashmir bus attack

By Hilal Mir

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) – Two police officers were killed and 12 others wounded in a militant attack Monday in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Militants fired on a bus carrying police personnel in the capital Srinagar’s Zewan area, police said in a statement.

A total of 14 officers were wounded in the attack, with two – an assistant sub-inspector and a constable – succumbing to their injuries at a hospital, police said, adding the area was cordoned off for searches.

Earlier on Monday, police said two militants were killed during a shootout at a checkpoint in the Rangreth area of Srinagar.

One of the militants was a Kashmiri man named Adil Ahmad Wani, a resident of Shopian district, and the other was an unidentified “foreign militant,” said a police statement.

Monday’s incidents come just two days after two police officers were shot dead by militants in northern Bandipora district.

Vijay Kumar, chief of police in Indian-administered Kashmir, later told media that a Pakistani militant was involved in the deadly shooting.

- Disputed territory

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, India and Pakistan have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971. Two of them were over Kashmir.

Indian and Pakistani troops have also fought intermittently in the northern Siachen region since 1984. A cease-fire took 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 been killed in the conflict since 1989.