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17 Killed, 30 Injured in First Day of Kashmir Ceasefire
Seventeen people, including seven army soldiers, were killed and nearly 30 others injured in a landmine blast and four encounters in India-controlled Kashmir in the first day of the month-long Ramadan unilateral ceasefire declared by the Indian central government and army, Indian media reported Wednesday, November 29.
Announced by the Indian government on November 19 and sanctioned by the army on November 25, the ceasefire came into effect at around 6 p.m. on Monday, 12 hours before the Muslim holy month of fasting began in Kashmir region.
The Indian security forces and local police had since taken "no crackdowns" and "no search operations", the Indian Express said.
However, militants blasted an army vehicle with an improvised explosive device, killing five soldiers in Anantnag district on Tuesday afternoon, the Hindustan Times reported.
The impact of the explosion was so great that the bus in which the armymen were travelling went up several feet high, the newspaper quoted police sources as saying.
The pro-independence Hizbul-Mujahideen militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the blast, with its spokesman saying that this was part of the group's plan of action.
Five militants, two soldiers and two civilians were killed in a "fierce encounter" in the border district of Poonch when a group of militants crossed the line of control from the Pakistan side in an infiltration attempt, the Hindustan Times said.
Three other militants were killed in two separate encounters along the line of control in Poonch district on Tuesday, it added.
The Hindu quoted Indian Home Minister L K Advani as saying on Tuesday that the Indian government's ceasefire initiative in Kashmir was addressed not only to Kashmiri militants but "also to Pakistan".
While expectations of any dramatic de-escalation in militant violence in Kashmir was belied, "a cloud seemed to have lifted from (the regional capital) Srinagar and the markets were jam-packed with cheerful people", the Indian Express reported.
"There was a sense of relief among the people in Srinagar and other towns in the Kashmir Valley as no operations were carried out by the security forces anywhere," the Hindustan Times also noted.
The current ceasefire is the second one seen this year in India- controlled Kashmir, where tens of thousands of people have lost their lives in more than a decade of militancy-related violence.
Hizbul Mujahideen offered a ceasefire in late July for peace talks with the Indian central government, but broke it in early August after New Delhi rejected any Pakistani involvement in the Kashmir peace process.
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