Alwaght- At least 20 people were killed in fierce clashes that erupted in Indian-Controlled Kashmir after security forces killed separatists earlier.
Indian soldiers, civilians and suspected separatists were killed in several clashes near the state’s summer capital of Srinagar. Indian government forces opened fire at civilians who were demonstrating against the latest killing of separatists.
It is expected that the death toll rises as fierce gun battles between security forces and suspected militants continue.
There were also demonstrations in Srinagar, where authorities ordered all schools shut on Monday as separatist groups called for protest rallies.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep among Kashmir's mostly Muslim population, and most support the separatists' cause against Indian rule, despite a decades-long military crackdown to fight dissent.
Separatist groups have been fighting since 1989 for the Indian-administered portion to become independent or merge with Pakistan.
Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown. India maintains roughly 500,000 soldiers in the territory.
The conflict in Indian-controlled Kashmir is basically a struggle for self-determination with residents of the region demanding a plebiscite while India rejects the call.
India has long accused Pakistan of training and arming militants and helping them infiltrate across the heavily militarized Line of Control into Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state.
Pakistan rejected India’s latest allegations, criticizing the country’s officials for hastily blaming Islamabad for the deadly attacks in the region.
Such accusations, according to a recent statement by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, stem from India’s attempts to divert attention from its own “state terrorism” in the area to include “the brutalization of peaceful, unarmed Kashmiris".
Since independence in 1947, the two nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which both countries claim in full.
