Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to punish those responsible for Sunday’s “despicable” and “cowardly” attack on an army base in Indian-occupied Kashmir that left 17 soldiers dead.
“We strongly condemn the cowardly terror attack in Uri. I assure the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished,” Modi said in a tweet following the raid on the base in the Uri area.
Seventeen soldiers were killed during an attack by suspected Kashmiri rebels on an army headquarters in Indian-occupied Kashmir on Sunday, the army’s northern command said.
“Four terrorists killed in the counter-terrorist operation at Uri. 17 soldiers make the supreme sacrifice,” the command said on Twitter, referring to the Uri area, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of the troubled northern region’s main city of Srinagar.
Indian army brigade headquarters was attacked near the de facto border with Pakistan on Sunday, killing seventeen soldiers in the most deadly such attack in the northern region of Kashmir since 2014.
Four “fidayeen” – or commando-style gunmen willing to fight to the death – had been confirmed killed after penetrating the base in Uri near the Line of Control with Pakistan, an Indian army spokesman said.
The army deployed helicopters to evacuate 20 soldiers who had been injured in the dawn attack that was followed by an hours-long gunfight, army sources had said earlier, adding the toll may rise.
The raid comes amid heightened tension in India’s only Muslim-majority region, which has faced more than two months of protests following the July 8 killing of a popular separatist field commander.
At least 78 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in street clashes with the Indian security forces, who have been criticised by human rights groups for using excessive force including shotguns that fire pellets that have blinded people.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a series of Twitter posts that he had spoken to the region’s political and military leadership and had instructed senior officials to monitor the situation.
He cancelled planned trips to Russia and the United States.
“We have activated the entire force in and around Uri sector to step up security and launch combing operations,” a senior Home Ministry official told Reuters.
“It is clearly a case of the cross-border terror attack. We don’t know which group is involved,” this official added.
There has been no independent claim of responsibility.
The military death toll was the worst in Indian-ruled Kashmir since a raid in December 2014, also near Uri which is to the west of the region’s main city of Srinagar, in which eight soldiers and three police were killed.
India accuses Pakistan of supporting ‘militant’ attacks in its northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rules only in part.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently raised the stakes in their decades-old feud by expressing support for separatists within Pakistan.
Pakistan denies any role in cross-border terrorism and has called on the United Nations and the international community to investigate atrocities it alleges have been committed by the security forces in Indian-ruled Kashmir.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been on edge since a New-Year attack on an Indian air force base in Punjab, near the border with Pakistan that killed seven uniformed men.
India has blamed a Pakistan-based group for that attack but, after initial progress, an attempt to conduct a joint investigation has lost momentum.
The two sides have frozen a tentative peace dialogue.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the two gained independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full.
Indian-administered Kashmir has been in the grip of widespread protests against Indian rule for more than two months, sparked by the killing of a popular rebel leader in a gun battle with soldiers on July 8.
At least 87 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in the deadly protests and clashes, the worst violence to hit the region since 2010.
Several rebel groups have for decades fought Indian soldiers — currently numbering around 500,000 — deployed in the territory, demanding independence for the region or its merger with Pakistan.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.
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