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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

India warns Pakistan will pay for Kashmir misadventure

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NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: India has warned Pakistan that it would pay for a deadly militant attack on an Indian army camp in Jammu and Kashmir, the latest violence in the disputed region to stoke tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.


Pakistan responded by saying it was “fully committed and capable of defending itself against any act of aggression” and India had unfairly blamed it for the attack “without a shred of evidence”.


Saturday’s attack on the camp near Jammu was the worst in months with six soldiers and the father of a soldier killed.


At least three militants were killed, according to Indian officials.


Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters the army had evidence the attack originated from Pakistan.


“Intelligence inputs indicate that these terrorists were being controlled by their handlers from across the border,” the minister said late on Monday. “Pakistan is expanding the arc of terror... resorting to ceasefire violations to assist infiltration,” Sitharaman said. “Pakistan will pay for this misadventure.”


Pakistan rejected India’s latest accusation.


“We have repeatedly seen India arrogating to itself the role of judge, jury and executioner,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement.


20-hour long gunfight continues in Srinagar


The over 20-hour long gunfight between holed up militants and the security forces continued in Srinagar on Tuesday as fresh firing exchanges started. Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants are holed up inside an under construction building in Karan Nagar area since Monday after they were forced to withdraw and later trapped inside the building following their failed terror bid on a CRPF camp.


The militants had entered this building after an alert sentry at the observation post of 23 battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) spotted them and fired.


One CRPF trooper was killed during the gunfight while a constable of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police was injured.


Since their independence 71 years ago, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two over the Kashmir region, which they both claim in full but rule in part.


India has long accused Pakistan of training and arming militants and helping them infiltrate across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) that separates the two sides in the region.


A 2003 ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir led to a sharp drop off of clashes on the LoC but violence,


and casualties among soldiers and civilians, has increased over the past few years.


Gunmen stormed an Indian military base in the town of Uri in Kashmir in September 2016, killing 18 Indian soldiers, the largest such attack in 14 years.


India blamed Pakistan and in response said it had launched “surgical strikes” across the LoC to target fighters based on the Pakistani side.


Pakistan denied any incursion had occurred. Indian officials said intercepted communications indicated militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group, carried out Saturday’s attack.


After shooting their way into the base, the militants — who Indian officials said wore fatigues and carried assault rifles and


grenades — took positions in a residential complex for soldiers’ families, leading to more than a day of gunfights to clear the area.


— Agencies


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