At least four rebels, a counterinsurgency police official and a civilian were killed during a gunbattle in disputed Kashmir on Friday, triggering anti-India protests and clashes in which several people were injured.
Government forces raided a cluster of homes on a tip that rebels were hiding in the southern Srigufwara area and they came under fire from militants, police said.
A masked Kashmiri protester watches from a distance as Indian policemen fire tear gas shells towards him during a protest in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, June 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Four militants and a police official with the counterinsurgency force were killed in the fighting, said Col. Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesman.
Police said a civilian husband and wife were hit by gunfire as soldiers cornered the rebels in the couple's house. Residents said the couple was not given time by government forces to leave their home. They were evacuated to a hospital where the husband was declared dead on arrival.
Indian paramilitary soldiers walk on a road dotted with bricks and stones thrown at them during a protest in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, June 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Police said at least two soldiers were also wounded in the fighting.
As the fighting raged, protests and clashes broke out nearby and in other neighborhoods as residents tried to help the trapped militants escape.
Government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas at the stone-throwing protesters, injuring at least 20.
Authorities suspended cellphone internet service in several districts in the region, a common practice to make organizing protests more difficult, and according to the government, stop the spread of rumors.
Indian policemen chase Kashmiri protesters during a protest in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, June 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Large anti-India protests and clashes later erupted on the outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, as thousands gathered to participate in the funeral of one of the slain militants who was from the area.
Protesters, chanting pro-rebel slogans and demanding the end of Indian rule in Kashmir, blocked a major highway and fought pitched battles with government forces. Several people were reportedly injured in the clashes.
Also on Friday, at least nine police and paramilitary soldiers were injured when rebels attacked their patrol with a grenade and gunfire in southern Tral town, police said.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, which is divided between the neighbors but claimed by both in its entirety. Since 1989, rebel groups have been fighting against Indian rule, and about 70,000 people have been killed in the armed uprising and a subsequent Indian military crackdown. Rebels demand that Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's main opposition party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using hate speech after he called Muslims “infiltrators" — some of his most incendiary rhetoric about the minority faith, days after the country began its weekslong general election.
The remarks at a campaign rally Sunday drew fierce criticism that Modi was peddling anti-Muslim tropes. The Congress party filed a complaint Monday with the Election Commission of India, alleging he broke rules that bar candidates from engaging in any activity that aggravates religious tensions.
Critics of the prime minister — an avowed Hindu nationalist — say India’s tradition of diversity and secularism has come under attack since his Bharatiya Janata Party won power a decade ago. They accuse the party of fostering religious intolerance and sometimes even violence. The party denies the accusation and says its policies benefit all Indians.
At a rally in the state of Rajasthan, Modi said that when the Congress party was in government, “they said Muslims have the first right over the country’s resources.” If it returns to power, the party “will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” he said as the crowd applauded.
“They will distribute it among infiltrators,” he continued, saying, “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators?”
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress party’s president, described the prime minister's comments as “hate speech” and party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi called them “deeply, deeply objectionable.”
The party sought action from the election commission, whose code of conduct forbids candidates from appealing “to caste or communal feelings” to secure votes. The first votes were cast Friday in the six-week election, which Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP are expected to win, according to most surveys. The results come out on June 4.
Asaduddin Owaidi, a Muslim lawmaker and president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen party, said on Sunday: “Since 2002 till this day, the only Modi guarantee has been to abuse Muslims and get votes.”
While there have long been tensions between India's majority Hindu community and Muslims, rights groups say that attacks against minorities have become more brazen under Modi.
Muslims have been lynched by Hindu mobs over allegations of eating beef or smuggling cows, an animal considered holy to Hindus. Muslim businesses have been boycotted, their homes and businesses have been bulldozed and places of worship set on fire. There have been open calls for their genocide.
Modi’s remarks referred to a 2006 statement by then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress party. Singh said that India’s lower castes, tribes, women and, “in particular the Muslim minority” deserved to share in the country’s development equally.
“They must have the first claim on resources,” Singh said. A day later, his office clarified that Singh was referring to all of the disadvantaged groups.
In its petition to the election commission, the Congress party said that Modi and the BJP have repeatedly used religion and religious symbols and sentiments in their election campaign with impunity. “These actions have been further bolstered by the commission’s inaction in penalizing the prime minister and the BJP for their blatant violations of electoral laws,” it said.
“In the history of India, no prime minister has lowered the dignity of his post as much as Modi has,” Kharge, Congress' president, wrote on social media platform X.
The commission can issue warnings and suspend candidates for a certain amount of time over violations of the code of conduct.
“We decline comment,” a spokesperson for the commission told the Press Trust of India news agency on Monday.
In his speech, Modi also repeated a Hindu nationalist trope that Muslims were overtaking the Hindu population by having more children. Hindus make up 80% of India's 1.4 billion people, while the country's 200 million Muslims are 14%. Official data shows that fertility rates among Muslims have dropped the fastest among religious groups in recent decades, from 4.4 in 1992-93 to 2.3 between 2019-21, just higher than Hindus at 1.94.
Modi’s BJP has previously referred to Muslims as infiltrators and cast them as illegal migrants who crossed into India from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Several states run by the BJP have also made laws that restrict interfaith marriage, citing the unproven conspiracy theory of “ love jihad,” which claims Muslim men use marriage to convert Hindu women.
Through it all, Modi has largely stayed silent, and critics say that has emboldened some of his most extreme supporters and enabled more hate speech against Muslims.
FILE- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi listens to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda speak during an event organized to release their party's manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, April 14, 2024. India's main opposition party is accusing Modi of hate speech after he called Muslims “infiltrators" and used some of his most incendiary rhetoric to date about the minority faith.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)
