News Asia
Kashmir Village Attack Kills 6 People, Including 2 Children
(CTN NEWS) – SRINAGAR, India – Police reported that a bomb in a village in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday left two children dead and five other civilians injured, one day after gunmen shot at a row of homes, leaving at least four people dead.
In the southern Rajouri district’s Dhangri hamlet, a house that had been targeted overnight was close by when the explosion took place.
In the explosion, a 5-year-old kid and a 12-year-old girl perished. Hospital staff members were attending to the injured.
According to top police official Mukesh Singh, two shooters randomly opened fire at three homes in Dhangri on Sunday night. He said that five people, including four civilians, were injured.
Activists of right-wing Hindu group Rashtriya Bajrang Dal, reacting to the militant attack in the southern Rajouri district of Indian-controlled Kashmir shout slogans during a protest in Jammu, India, Monday, Jan.2, 2023.(AP Photo/Channi Anand)
The two strikes at Dhangri, close to the heavily guarded Line of Control that separates the disputed territory between India and Pakistan, were blamed by police on militants fighting against Indian sovereignty.
It wasn’t apparent if the attackers had left the device behind.
Police and soldiers were dispatched quickly by the authorities, who were looking for the attackers.
Activists of right wing Hindu groups Dogra Front and Shiv Sena, reacting to the militant attack in the southern Rajouri district of Indian-controlled Kashmir burn Pakistan flag during a protest in Jammu, India, Monday, Jan.2, 2023. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
The deceased were Hindus, and Dhangri is a village where Hindus predominate.
In Dhangri, hundreds of people gathered to protest the killings while yelling anti-assailant chants.
They insisted that Manoj Sinha, the top official from New Delhi in the area, visit the village while keeping the victims’ bodies in a line in the main plaza and refusing to cremate them.
Around thirty people in the southern city of Jammu also demonstrated against the murders, which Sinha called a “cowardly terror attack.”
He declared, “I guarantee the public that those responsible for this horrible crime will not escape punishment.”
Activists of right wing Hindu group Rashtriya Bajrang Dal, reacting to the militant attack in the southern Rajouri district of Indian-controlled Kashmir shout slogans during a protest in Jammu, India, Monday, Jan.2, 2023.(AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Later on Monday, Sinha went to the village and met the families of the slain.
Kashmir is a split region that is claimed by both Pakistan and India.
Since 1989, rebels in Kashmir’s Indian-controlled region have opposed the government there. Most Muslim residents of Kashmir support the rebels’ aim to unite the region under Pakistani sovereignty or as a separate state.
India maintains that Pakistan is funding the militancy in Kashmir. Most Kashmiris view the claim as a genuine freedom movement, and Pakistan denies the accusation.
In the fighting, tens of thousands of civilians, rebels, and government troops have perished.
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