https://apnews.com/article/business-pakistan-india-kashmir-56f5c21fe0fea4703b608f8166e4a4f3
During a rebel attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s main city, on April 4th, a paramilitary soldier was killed and another wounded. In two separate attacks in another area of Kashmir, four laborers were injured elsewhere in the disputed region. Two militants on a motorbike opened fire at patrolling paramilitary soldiers in the main business center of Srinagar – Kashmir’s largest city – on Monday. Police and soldiers cordoned off the area and launched a search for the militants. Attackers also fired Monday injuring two Indian workers in southern Pulwama district. Hours earlier, two laborers were injured late Sunday in a gunfire attack in Pulwama. Police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the string of attacks. There was no independent confirmation of the incidents.
Kashmir has been disputed by both India and Pakistan who claim the divided territory in its entirety. Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India on the other hand, insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed over the conflict.
India has control of about half the area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which comprises Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, while Pakistan controls a third of the region, divided into two provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Pakistan believes that Kashmir was illegitimately ceded to India by a ruler who did not represent the people of Kashmir. Additionally, since a majority of the Muslim majority states went to Pakistan, the country believes that Kashmir should belong to them. Kashmir is geostrategically located and serves as the main source of water and power generation for both Pakistan and India. The control of the region creates a disputal problem in which the control of the rivers and glacial water could pose an existential threat to the other.