SRINAGAR, India June 7 -- Authorities in India's war-torn Kashmir region said Friday they had killed an Islamic militant from Chechnya, indicating mercenaries from the Russian breakaway republic are now involved in Kashmir's separatist insurgency. Officials said the militant, who went by the alias Abu Kokab, was killed along with four other foreign guerrillas during a confrontation with Indian security forces in the central Badgam district of Jammu and Kashmir state.
Authorities said the militants were carrying documents identifying their nationalities. India claims more than 50 militants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and other Muslim countries, have been killed in Kashmir over the last five months. Since 1989, Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, has been the site of an Islamic-led separatist insurgency. However, Indian authorities have blamed the conflict on Pakistan, which they say is waging a proxy war with the aid of foreign mercenaries. More than 17,000 civilians, soldiers and militants have been killed over the course of the conflict.
