Kashmir Attack: Militants Target Baramulla Indian Base

Militants have attacked an Indian army camp in Indian-administered Kashmir with gunfire and grenades, killing one border guard and wounding another.

Indian troops returned fire from the camp in the garrison town of Baramulla, 50km (30 miles) north-west of Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir.

The camp is the local headquarters of a counter-insurgency military unit.

The attack came three days after the Indian army said it had carried out a "surgical strike" in the region.

The army said it had destroyed "terrorist launching pads" used by militants with support from Pakistan, but the Pakistani military disputed this.

The Indian assault followed the deadliest attack on one of its bases in Kashmir in years. On 18 September, militants entered an army base in the town of Uri and killed 18 soldiers.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, a claim Pakistan denies.

Disputed Muslim-majority Kashmir has been a flashpoint for decades and has sparked two wars between India and Pakistan, which both control parts of the disputed territory but claim it in full.

Relations between India and Pakistan have sharply deteriorated since the attack in Uri earlier this month.

Pakistan says India's stance is a "blatant attempt" to deflect attention from human rights abuses in the region.

More than 80 people, nearly all anti-government protesters, have died in more than two months of violence against Indian rule.

(BBC)