The anti-India militancy in Kashmir suffered a serious setback on Wednesday morning when Indian security forces killed Riyaz Naikoo in an encounter at Pulwama in south Kashmir. Naikoo, who had been the Hizbul Mujahideen’s operational commander in the Valley since 2017, was India’s most-wanted terrorist in Kashmir.

The son of the Afghan Taliban’s late founder has been appointed as the insurgents’ military chief in a political reshuffle to check the power of his predecessor, senior militant figures have said.

Over years of fighting, Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo recruited scores of young Kashmiris in an armed quest for independence from India. His death has set off a fresh wave of unrest.

Indian troops killed four militants in gun battles in Kashmir on Wednesday, including the commander of the biggest separatist group fighting New Delhi, a police official said, triggering clashes across the disputed region that left dozens injured.

The arrests were made as special forces carried out a raid on a property in Kabul on Tuesday evening, seizing weapons and explosives and killing five members of the joint network.

Five members of an Islamic State terror cell that attacked the largest American base in Afghanistan earlier this year were killed in a series of operations by Afghan commandos in and around Kabul, Afghan officials said Wednesday.

Zalmay Khalilzad will press Taliban, India and Pakistan to support a reduction in violence amid surging Taliban attacks.