Blast kills Indian army officer, soldier in Kashmir

By Zahid Rafiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) - An explosion in Jammu and Kashmir killed two Indian soldiers, including a major-rank officer, and injured two others on Friday.

“An officer and a soldier were martyred and two other soldiers were injured in an IED [Improvised Explosive Device] blast on the Line of Control in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district,” Defence spokesman Lt. Col. Devender Anand told media.

The Line of Control is a de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir valley between Pakistan and India.

In a separate incident, Anand said, an army porter was killed in an alleged sniper fire from across the border in the Sunderbani sector of the same district.

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.