Two Indian soldiers killed days ahead of Kashmir polls

NEW DELHI: A gunfight left two Indian soldiers dead, and two others injured in Kashmir, days before local elections in the disputed Himalayan region.

Indian-held Kashmir has seen a rise in clashes between freedom fighters and security forces ahead of the first local assembly polls in the region for a decade.

The Indian army said the firefight took place on Friday in Kishtwar district, in a post on social media platform X.

Rebels have fought Indian forces for decades, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

About 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in the region, battling a 35-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and fighters since 1989.

The territory has been without an elected local government since 2019, when its partial autonomy was cancelled by Narendra Modi’s government.

A total of 8.7 million people will be eligible to vote for the region’s assembly when the election begins on September 18, with results expected in October.

Ahead of the vote, Modi is expected to address rallies for his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the southern Jammu portion of the territory, which has a sizeable Hindu population.

In the past two years, more than 50 soldiers were killed in clashes, mostly in Jammu.