Six militants killed in Indian Kashmir after separatist conviction

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Six militants killed in Indian Kashmir after separatist conviction

Indian security forces have killed six militants in Kashmir in the past 24 hours while militants shot dead a female TV performer and a police officer, officials said on Thursday after the conviction of the region's best-known separatist.

A New Delhi court on Wednesday ordered life in jail for the Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik for funding terrorist activities and many other crimes. There were warnings from politicians that the sentencing would promote alienation and separatism in India's only Muslim-majority region.

Shops and businesses in Kashmir remained closed for a second day of protesting against the verdict, while police arrested 10 people for throwing stones and sloganeering outside Malik's residence.

India and Pakistan each rule a part of Kashmir and claim it in full. Since the late 1980s, Hindu India has been fighting an armed insurgency in its part of the region.

Three militants each from Jaish-e Mohammad and Lashkar-e Taiba have been killed in two separate gun battles in Kashmir since yesterday, Kashmir Police Chief Vijay Kumar told Reuters, referring to two militant organisations. We lost a cop in one of the operations. On Wednesday night, Kumar said militants had also shot dead 35-year-old television and social-media performer Amreen Bhat.

More than a dozen people, mostly police, have been killed in Kashmir this year. One of the dead was a Kashmiri Hindu government employee who was concerned about the region's tiny minority community.

More than 3,400 Hindus from Kashmir have been given government jobs in recent years, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has tried to lure them back into the region after militant attacks forced them to flee in 1990.

The Hindus have been protesting for the relocation of Kashmir.

A protesting Hindu employee of the government, Amit, told Reuters, "We are not secure here."

Our colleague was shot dead in his office. Our demand is to relocate outside Kashmir, because every time there is a targeted killing. The government has tried to provide security by promising to go after not only militants but also their informers.

Security forces have already stepped up their operations, killing 78 militants this year, according to the administration of Kashmir. For the whole of last year, 193 militants were killed, while 232 were shot dead in 2020.

Modi's government, which split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally controlled territories in 2019, is trying to boost tourism in the picturesque Himalayan region known for its Mughal-era gardens, a scenic lake in Srinagar, rivers and meadows.

Around 900,000 tourists have visited the region this year, as a heat wave sounded the north and western plains of India, compared to 650,000 for the whole of 2021. Some 2 million people are expected to visit this year.

The federal government is planning to hold the largest annual Hindu pilgrimage in Kashmir starting June 30th, to the Amarnath cave shrine. There are expected to be around 800,000 visitors.

The police chief said the authorities would deploy more forces this year and use drones and other gadgets to secure the pilgrimage, despite concerns over militants' use of magnetic bombs.

He said that it is a serious threat because of the fact that militants or miscreants may fix a bomb on vehicles when tourists, pilgrims and security forces' vehicles get stuck in traffic congestion.