On Thursday, Indian security forces detained about 3,000 people suspected of collaborating with insurgent groups in Indian-administered Kashmir and demolished two homes linked to alleged insurgents following the killing of a police officer.
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The operation was launched after officer Ashiq Hussain, a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Special Operations Group, was killed on Wednesday after being shot by suspected insurgents in the city of Anantnag.
Hussain had been deployed on security duty for the Amarnath Yatra, the annual Hindu pilgrimage to a sacred cave in the Himalayas, which has been suspended for the past three days because of adverse weather conditions, according to police.
The intelligence-based coordinated operations were carried out in several districts across the Kashmir Valley, including Srinagar, Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama, Baramulla, Budgam, Shopian and Ganderbal.
“The objective is to identify and dismantle the networks that provide financial, logistical and other forms of support to terrorist groups,” a senior police official said, adding that those detained are being questioned and are undergoing verification procedures.
Later that night, hours after the attack, authorities demolished the homes of two alleged insurgents in Anantnag. According to police, the houses belonged to Adil Thokar and Haroon Rashid Ganaie, who were identified by security forces as “active terrorists.”
“They arrived in the middle of the night and demolished the houses, possibly with excavators… People were terrified and could not go outside to see what was happening. We could only hear the noise, and when we went out in the morning, we saw the houses had been demolished,” a resident who requested anonymity told news agency EFE.
The measures follow an increasingly common pattern in Kashmir after insurgent attacks, with mass arrests and the demolition of properties linked to alleged militants or their suspected collaborators.
The Kashmir region has been disputed by India and Pakistan since 1947. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting insurgent groups in the territory, an allegation Pakistan denies.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
Source: teleSUR English
