New death sparks protests in Indian Kashmir

25 August 2010 - 22:38 By Sapa-AFP
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Thousands of people poured on to the streets of Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar on Wednesday after another protester died, taking the toll in two months of violence to 64, police said.



The teenager who died in hospital on Wednesday had been admitted on Monday. Witnesses said he had been beaten by federal paramilitary forces during a protest against Indian rule.

Police said they were investigating the death, which brought thousands of locals out on the streets of Srinagar’s Soura district chanting slogans.

An AFP photographer said police fired several warning shots in the air to disperse the protesters who were carrying the corpse.

Later some of the protesters, chanting “blood for blood” and “Go India, go back”, set fire to a police vehicle and a private vehicle parked near a police station, witnesses said.

Police fired teargas and swung batons to disperse the protesters and in the ensuing clashes 12 demonstrators were hurt, police said.

The scenic Kashmir region has been under rolling curfews to contain deadly protests that began with the killing on June 11 of a teenage student in Srinagar by a police tear-gas shell.

Most parts of Srinagar were under strict curfew on Wednesday after Muslim separatists opposed to Indian rule in the region called on residents to hold protests.

In other Muslim-majority towns where the curfew was not in force, a strike called by separatists to at protests the deaths brought daily life to a standstill, witnesses said.

In Pampore town, 15 kilometres (nine miles), south of Srinagar, a young protester was wounded on Wednesday when security forces opened fire to quell a demonstration, police said.

Anti-India sentiments run deep in Kashmir, where Muslim militants have fought a 20-year insurgency in Indian Kashmir against rule from New Delhi.

The mountainous region, held in part by Pakistan and India but claimed in full by both, has been the cause of two of the three wars the countries have fought since independence from Britain more than half a century ago.





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