Pakistan ruling coalition ally criticizes cyber law amendments, warns of threat to free speech

NEW DELHI: India’s defense minister said on Monday that New Delhi had ended its military conflict with Pakistan in May as it had met all its objectives and had not responded to pressure, rejecting US President Donald Trump’s claim that he brokered the truce.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh was speaking at the opening of a discussion in parliament on the April 22 attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in which 26 men were killed.

The attack led to a fierce, four-day military conflict with Pakistan in May, the worst between the nuclear-armed neighbors in nearly three decades.

“India halted its operation because all the political and military objectives studied before and during the conflict had been fully achieved,” Singh said.

“To suggest that the operation was called off under pressure is baseless and entirely incorrect,” he said.

Singh’s comments came as the Indian Army said that it had killed three men in an intense gunbattle in Kashmir on Monday.

Indian TV channels said the men were suspected to be behind the April attack. Reuters could not immediately verify the information.

The Kashmir attack was the worst assault on civilians in the country since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. New Delhi said Pakistani nationals were involved in the killings and blamed Islamabad for backing them. Pakistan denied involvement and sought an independent investigation.

In the latest conflict, the two sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and other munitions, killing dozens of people, before Trump announced they had agreed to a ceasefire.

Pakistan thanked Trump for brokering the agreement but India said Washington had no hand in it and that New Delhi and Islamabad had agreed between themselves to end the fighting.

Indian opposition groups have questioned what they say is the intelligence failure behind the Kashmir attack and the government’s inability to capture the assailants — issues they are expected to raise during the parliament discussion.

They have also criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for coming under pressure from Trump and agreeing to end the fighting, along with reports that Indian jets were shot down during the fighting.

Pakistan claimed it downed five Indian planes in combat, and India’s highest ranking general told Reuters that India suffered initial losses in the air, but declined to give details.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir has been at the heart of the hostility between old rivals India and Pakistan, both of whom claim the region in full but rule it in part, and have fought two of their three wars over it.

India accuses Pakistan of helping separatists in its part of Kashmir, but Pakistan denies this and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support to Kashmiris seeking self-determination.

SRINAGAR, India: Indian security forces killed three suspected armed rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday during a clash in a wildlife reserve, the army said.

The incident occurred in the mountains of Dachigam, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the disputed region’s main city of Srinagar.

“Three terrorists have been neutralized in an intense firefight,” the Indian army said in a statement on social media.

“Operation continues,” it added.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and the neighbors — which both claim the region in full — have fought two wars over its control.

The incident took place near the major Hindu shrine of Amarnath, to which more than 350,000 people from across India have traveled as part of an ongoing pilgrimage.

The army did not immediately identify those killed, but a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity that they were all “foreigners.”

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency against Indian rule since 1989, demanding Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan.

The clash comes more than three months after gunmen attacked tourists in Pahalgam, a popular resort town in the restive territory, killing 26 people, mostly Hindus.

Security forces have been hunting for the attackers but they remain at large.

India accused Pakistan of backing the attackers, a charge Islamabad denied, sparking an intense four-day conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals in May that killed more than 70 people on both sides.

Clashes between rebels and government forces have drastically reduced during the last five years but many local militants have been killed since the Pahalgam attack.