Blast kills Indian army officer, soldier in Kashmir

By Zahid Rafiq</p> <p>SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) – An explosion in Jammu and Kashmir killed two Indian soldiers, including a major-rank officer, and injured two others on Friday. </p> <p>“An officer and a soldier were martyred and two other soldiers were injured in an IED [Improvised Explosive Device] blast on the Line of Control in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district,” Defence spokesman Lt. Col. Devender Anand told media.</p> <p>The Line of Control is a de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir valley between Pakistan and India.</p> <p>In a separate incident, Anand said, an army porter was killed in an alleged sniper fire from across the border in the Sunderbani sector of the same district.</p> <p>Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.</p> <p>Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars — in 1948, 1965 and 1971 — two of them over Kashmir.</p> <p>Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.</p> <p>Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.</p> <p>According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.