Nearly 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the Uri attack.
Nearly 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the Uri attack.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — After one of the deadliest attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir in more than two decades, the next chapter in one of the world’s most turbulent geopolitical sagas has begun.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, armed militants entered an Indian army base in the garrison town of Uri — about 63 miles from Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir — killing 17 soldiers. Several hours later, four militants were killed in a shootout with the Indian army. It’s unclear which militant group is responsible.
It was one of the deadliest on an army base in Kashmir since militant attacks began in 1989. Now, the finger-pointing between India and Pakistan has begun, adding to the further souring of the relations between the neighboring nations.
India’s Home Affairs Minister responded to the attack by calling Pakistan a terrorist state, but he stopped short of blaming the country for the attack.
“Pakistan is a terrorist state and it should be identified and isolated as such,” said Rajnath Singh, India’s Home Affairs Minister, Sunday on Twitter. He said that the people involved in the attack were, “highly trained, heavily armed and specially equipped.”
Singh added he was “deeply disappointed with Pakistan’s continued and direct support to terrorism and terrorist groups.”
Spokesman Nafees Zakaria of the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responded: “This is a very irresponsible and baseless allegation that he has leveled against Pakistan which we outrightly reject.”
He blamed India for fostering Kashmir’s unrest.
“India is desperately looking for ways to deflect the world’s attention from the situation in India-occupied Kashmir,” Zakaria said. “Pakistan investigates and does not give knee jerk reactions whenever any such incident takes place. We reject these claims.”
It’s been more than a few years of relative calm in the Indian-administered region — largely considered one of the world’s most tumultuous geopolitical flashpoints since the India-Pakistan partition — it has been gripped by unrest for more than two months.
Demonstrations began in July after the Indian army killed Burhan Wani, the commander of the separatist group Hizbul Mujaheedin. Police would later describe the 21-year-old’s killing as a major success in their campaign against separatist militants. Regardless, angry mobs protested against his death and attacked police stations, police posts and government buildings.
At least 85 people have been killed in the past 72 days, all of the deaths coming as a result of clashes between authorities and protestors. On Saturday, thousands of people defied a curfew to attend the funeral of Nasir Shafi, an 11-year-old boy found dead on Friday on the outskirts of Srinagar.
