Separatist Strife in Kashmir Kills 11

Eleven people were killed in separatist violence in the Kashmir region, police said Tuesday, as militant violence continued to flare amid the U.S. strikes on Afghanistan.

The violence came as security was increased around Jammu and Kashmir state’s airports after rebels tried to storm a key military airfield Monday. Six people were killed in the attack.

Police said eight civilians were wounded Tuesday morning when a bomb went off at a village in the Poonch district.

Later Tuesday, two separatist militants and a villager were killed in a fierce gun battle in Anantnag, south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

Two more civilians died in an exchange of fire between militants and security forces in the Doda district.

In the airfield attack, paramilitary soldiers killed four Muslim militants Monday in Srinagar.

An air force employee and a civilian were also killed in the 40-minute gun battle at the gates of the airport.

“Airports in the state are highly guarded, but we have further beefed up security around the airports. Patrols around airports have been also stepped up,” said R.S. Bhuller, a senior paramilitary official.

A Pakistan-based militant group, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack. Lashkar-e-Taiba suicide squads have launched a series of attacks across the region in the last two years.

“We were expecting such attacks, and in future they [militants] will again attempt to launch such attacks. But we are confident that our alert security forces will foil all such attacks,” Bhuller said.

Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state.

Officials say more than 30,000 people have been killed in the region since a rebellion broke out in 1990. Separatists put the toll between 60,000 and 80,000.