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An Indian police officer pays tribute to his colleagues who died in a shopian base camp, about 63 kilometers south of Srinagar, in Indian Kashmir, Friday, September 21, 2018. Anti-Indian rebels in disputed Kashmir The police kidnapped three people whose bullets were recovered Friday, officials said. The killings took place a few days after the largest rebel group in the region asked police officers to leave the Kashmiri police and stay away from counter-insurgency operations. (AP Photo / Mukhtar Khan)
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Indian policemen and family members carry coffins of policemen who were killed by rebels at a wreath-laying ceremony at a shopian base camp, about 63 kilometers south of Srinagar, in Indian Kashmir . Indian rebels in disputed Kashmir attacked a dozen police houses and kidnapped three of them, whose bullets were recovered on Friday, officials said. The killings took place a few days after the largest rebel group in the region asked police officers to leave the Kashmiri police and stay away from counter-insurgency operations. (AP Photo / Mukhtar Khan)
SRINAGAR, India – Anti-Indian rebels in disputed Kashmir attacked a dozen police houses and kidnapped three houses whose bodies were riddled with bullets Friday, officials said.
The killings took place a few days after the largest rebel group in the region asked police officers to leave the Kashmiri police and stay away from counter-insurgency operations. Activists in Kashmir have increasingly targeted police working with Indian forces, accusing them of being collaborators.
On Friday morning, nearly two dozen rebels stormed the homes of two villages in southern Kashmir, took away three officers on duty and a fourth person who had resigned from the police a few days earlier. The three men were shot dead and the former officer was released unharmed, police said.
S.P. Pani, the police chief of the region, described the killings as "barbarians". He said that they show "the desperation of some of the militants, not a flaw in our system".
"We will take care of them and they (the attackers) will be brought to justice," he said.
Last month, militants kidnapped 11 policemen and family members in southern Kashmir after government forces arrested several members of the activists' family and set fire to at least two of their homes. The video of the abductees was posted on social media by activists, asking the police not to harass their families.
Riyaz Naikoo, commander of the operations of the largest Kashmir rebel group, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and demanded the release of family members of all militants in police custody within three days. The police discreetly released Naikoo's father and other relatives of activists, who then released the 11 people they abducted.
"You forced us to kidnap your loved ones to make you feel what we feel when the police harass our families, how a mother would feel when her son was taken away, and we took them away to let you know that we are able to achieve as well, "Naikoo said in widely broadcast audio, warning the local police to stay away from India's anti-rebel operations.
Hundreds of thousands of Indian government soldiers, backed by tens of thousands of local police officers who patrol the streets, gather intelligence and profile anti-Indian activists, have maintained rigorous security controls throughout the country. region.
In the early 1990s, when the anti-India rebellion reached its peak, Kashmir police were reluctant to be trained in counter-insurgency as a result of attacks against them and their family members. However, they quickly felt demoralized, scared and trapped between the Indian authorities who employ them and the friends and neighbors who question their loyalty.
Several police officers recently left their jobs as a result of the murders of colleagues and the threats of activists.
India and Pakistan, armed with nuclear weapons, each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim it in their entirety.
Most Kashmiris support the cause of the rebels, namely that the territory be unified under the Pakistani regime or as an independent country, while participating in civil demonstrations against Indian control.
The rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, which Pakistan denies.
Nearly 70,000 people were killed in the uprising and subsequent Indian military repression.
