SRINAGAR (Dispatches) – A 19-year-old
civilian has been shot dead in Indian-administered Kashmir in what his family called “cold-blooded murder” by Indian forces.
The killing brought the number of the fatalities to a dozen this month as attacks by security forces or militant increase in the Muslim-majority region, claiming more civilian lives.
Police said the man was hit in “crossfire” during “militant action” near a police paramilitary camp in the village of Zainapora and that the incident was being investigated.
The victim, a milk seller in the southern Kashmir Valley, had been fatally shot without provocation.
The killing brought the number of the fatalities to a dozen this month as attacks by security forces or militant increase in the Muslim-majority region, claiming more civilian lives.
Dozens of people, including several civilians, have reportedly been gunned down over the past few weeks during a fresh surge in violence and a government crackdown in the Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The latest incidence of violence comes as the authorities tightened security across the disputed Himalayan region for a visit by a top Indian minister. Amit Shah, India’s home minister and effective deputy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been in the Muslim-majority region since Saturday.
His visit follows a series of targeted killings by militants, with minority Hindus and Sikhs as well as migrant workers from elsewhere in India being the main targets.
Police have in recent days impounded hundreds of motorbikes in the city and intensified checks on pedestrians including women and children.
New Delhi has about 500,000 troops and paramilitaries in Kashmir seeking to contain a rebel movement agitating for independence or the region’s merger with Pakistan.
Motorbikes have been used for drive-by killings. India’s chief of defense staff General Bipin Rawat said security monitoring was being intensified to thwart attacks by suspected militants.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. Rebels launched an insurgency in 1989 and the fighting has left tens of thousands dead, mainly civilians.
The uptick in violence comes amid a sweeping crackdown by Indian government forces across the Kashmir Valley following a string of targeted killings in the main city of Srinagar last week. Police have detained more than 700 people for questioning in the Muslim-majority region over the past few days.
According to police, those detained in the crackdown include members of religious groups, anti-India activists, and “overground workers,” a term Indian authorities use for pro-independence sympathizers.
Local police have blamed the targeted killings on armed groups fighting against Indian rule in the region for decades.