Indian forces kill 1, wound 15 in Kashmir unrest

AP

06 08 2010

SRINAGAR, India — Government forces fired live ammunition to stop a protest march in Indian-held Kashmir on Thursday, killing one person and wounding at least 15, pushing the death toll from two months of civil unrest to 49.

India’s portion of the divided Himalayan region has been wracked by weeks of clashes between rock-throwing Kashmiri protesters who have set official buildings and vehicles ablaze, and paramilitary police using guns and tear gas in an effort to contain the large anti-India crowds.

Clashes erupted in several areas Thursday. Security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas to stop the march by over 100 protesters to the southern town of Pulwama, killing one person and wounding at least 15, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media. Four of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.

Some police and soldiers were also injured in subsequent clashes, he said.

Also Thursday, hundreds of men and women took part in his funeral procession of a 50-year-old man who died from his injuries after a bullet had strayed into his home during earlier unrest in the region’s main city of Srinagar. Police responded by firing warning shots and tear gas at the mourners.

The recent unrest in the Himalayan region is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict that has since claimed 68,000 lives, mostly civilians. Thousands of residents across the volatile region have ignored « shoot on sight » orders imposed by the state administration and a round-the-clock curfew.

Before the shooting at Pulwama, thousands of Kashmiri Muslims chanting independence slogans and carrying black-and-green flags marched through the nearby town of Kakpora where a young man was killed Monday.

Meanwhile, Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, said 300 members of a Rapid Action Force, specially trained to control violent mobs, reached Srinagar and were deployed Thursday.

The federal government has also sent nearly 2,000 additional paramilitary troops to Kashmir, Tripathi said.

On Wednesday, India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram appealed for an end to the violence in Kashmir, and said the government was ready for dialogue with the Kashmiri people.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between predominantly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan but is claimed in its entirety by both. Separatist politicians and militants in Kashmir reject Indian sovereignty over the region and want to carve out a separate homeland or merge with Pakistan.

Kashmir Unrest: 5 more killed in a day

kashmirwatch.com

3 08 2010

Sheikh Imran Bashir

Srinagar, Aug (AIP): Kashmir continues to remain tense after fresh violence on Tuesday left five people dead. With five more deaths today the toll since Friday has gone up to 28.

Security forces have been given shoot at sight orders against people violating the curfew.

There were reports that shoot-at-sight orders had been issued in Srinagar to control crowds defying curfew but authorities deny it and said police was only making announcements on loudspeakers asking people to remain indoors and not to violate curfew failing which they will be dealt strictly.

The surge in public anger has been met with more forces and two additional battalions of Para-military forces are now in the Valley to break the series of violence.

The Centre has also decided to send an additional 2,000 paramilitary personnel to Kashmir, adding to the existing 3,200 currently based in the state. The additional forces will be deployed in all trouble-torn areas. But the violence is rising too day by day, minute by minute.

Curfew was defied at many places in Srinagar, Budgam, Bandipora and Baramulla, Awantipora and Kulgam.

In Frisal Sherpora, Kulgam, a police post and the house of a cop and Special Police Official (SPO) were set on fire by the protesters.

In Budgam Police post Soibugh, was set ablaze by angry mob. Security forces open tear smoke shells and use baton charges on the protesters.

The police had to use fire shots at few places, in which five persons lost their lives.

In Srinagar, at Eidgah despite the curfew and shoot at sight orders hundreds of people came out on Tuesday afternoon.

The crowds quickly swelled to thousands as they mourned 18-year-old boy Mohammad Anees who was killed in police firing near his house at Narwara.

Thousands of people carried the body of Anees to Jamia Masjid, the grand mosque in Srinagar, and performed his funeral prayers. The funeral procession was given safe passage till Eidgah, where Anees was laid-down in a grave in Martyrs Graveyard.

The news of the deaths saw people pouring into the streets in several areas in Srinagar and the police decided to move away from several localities. People performed prayers in the roads defying curfew. Police fire aerial shots and lobbed tear-smoke shells to control the restive crowds.

Mehraj-ud-Din Lone was hit by a bullet near Qamarwari area in the forenoon. Lone was hit by a bullet when security personnel in order to impose shoot-at-sight orders fired at the residents defying curfew. Hundreds participated in Lone’s funeral leading to defiance of curfew.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani had asked people to assemble at Eidgah today. The call, however, was foiled when the police re-arrested Geelani at a SKIMS hospital.

Third youth, Suhail Ahmad, was shot at when protesters hit streets in Shaltengh area. Suhail was shifted to a hospital in critical condition.

Medical Superintendent of SMHS Hospital Dr. Waseem Qureshi told Agence India Press that the teenager Suhail Ahmad is critical as he had received bullets in his abdomen.

Reports reaches to Agence India Press says that other seven were also wounded in Shalteng.

Two more people, identified as Jahangir Ahmad and Bilal Ahmad, were killed in Kulgam area.

However a police press note issued here said that one people was killed in Kulgam.

Riyaz Ahmed Bhat who was injured at Khrew on August 1 succumbed to his injuries in SK Institute of Medical Science today.

Meanwhile, night time protests are being held across Kashmir. Thousands of people in Srinagar are out on the roads holding protest demonstrations.

The situation in Kashmir goes worst every day. Forty five people have now died since June 11 when the current uprising began. Hundreds have been injured during the period.

Youth killed in fresh Kashmir clashes, curfew continues

Timesofindia

PTI, Aug 3, 2010,SRINAGAR: Violence again erupted in Srinagar and Budgam districts of the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday where protestors clashed with security forces who opened fire leaving a youth dead and five others injured.

With today’s death, a total of eight persons have been killed in the violence in the Valley since yesterday.

Defying curfew, residents of Qamarwari in Srinagar took to the streets and held demonstrations. When the security forces deployed in the area asked them to disperse, they refused, police said.

Security forces then opened fire, killing 25-year-old Mehraj Ahmed Lone and injuring three others.

In Budgam, locals held demonstrations and refused to disperse following which security forces opened fire.

Two persons were injured in the firing and have been hospitalised, police said.

Curfew remained in force on Tuesday in the Kashmir Valley following violence by rampaging mobs which indulged in stone-pelting, attacked government buildings and looted weapons from police.

The Valley was under the grip of tension for the fifth day.

Seven persons were killed yesterday as police opened fire to disperse the mobs who defied curfew and attacked police stations and CRPF camps in the Valley. 22 people have been killed and over 500 injured, including 200 security force personnel, in violence since last Friday.

Protestors raised pro-freedom slogans at mosques this morning. Schools, shops and business establishments were shut and security personnel restricted movement of people.

Mohammed Siddiqui, a resident of Batmaloo in central Srinagar, said in the absence of daily supplies his family was having to do without milk and vegetables.

As violence escalated in Kashmir Valley, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had chaired a meeting of the Unified Command here yesterday and reviewed the measures in place to tackle the situation.

Protesters had last night set a handicraft centre afire at Zalbager-Nawa Bazar in downtown Srinagar.

One protester had died in police firing after agitators attacked a police post and attempted to set it afire and another perished late last night in Kulgam district. In adjacent Sangam in Anantnag district, one person was killed when CRFP personnel retaliated to heavy stone throwing at their camp, police said, adding another person had died in a stampede following the firing.

At Kakpora, in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, police had opened fire on a group of stone-pelting protesters who were indulging in ransacking, killing one of them.

One person was killed in Kralpora in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district when police fired on a mob which looted arms from a police post. The agitators managed to flee with four rifles.

A boy, injured in violence in Batmaloo district, succumbed to injuries last evening, police said.

Protesters had also set afire all the four buildings in a police station at Rajpura in Pulwama district injuring 20 people.

« Rampaging mobs violated curfew restrictions at various places in Kakapora, Pulwama, Budgam, Anantnag, Kulgam and Kupwara destroying police and public properties, » police department said in a statement.

Protesters had also set afire two government offices and a railway structure in central Budgam district. Three protesters were injured there as police tried to contain the violence.

Three people were injured in firing in Bemina on the outskirts of Srinagar.

A person identified as Tariq Ahmed, who was hit by a teargas shell three days back in Bijbehara in south Kashmir, had succumbed to his injuries in a hospital here.

The Centre had yesterday rallied behind Omar in handling the situation in the Kashmir Valley and indicated it is committed to carrying out political initiatives for which peace is a prerequisite.

Omar had called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the current unrest in the Valley and find an administrative and political way out.

The chief minister said said Jammu and Kashmir is a political situation which needs political handling. « It requires a political package more than an economic package, » he said.

He also said curfew will be implemented strictly and sought additional paramilitary forces especially the Rapid Action Force to deal with street protesters.

He briefed the meeting in which all the members of the Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna were present on the latest turn of events in Kashmir which witnessed a spurt in violence.

Cachemire indien: six manifestants tués dans des heurts

AFP

2 08 2010

SRINAGAR — Six personnes, dont un enfant de 9 ans, ont été tuées lundi au Cachemire indien au cours de heurts entre manifestants et forces de sécurité dans cette région à majorité musulmane secouée par la violence, selon la police et des témoins.

Quatre manifestants, tous des hommes, ont été abattus par les forces de sécurité au cours d’incidents séparés, a déclaré au téléphone à l’AFP un policier qui a souhaité garder l’anonymat.

Un cinquième est mort au cours d’une bousculade à la suite d’un tir mortel dans la zone de Sangam, à environ 35 kilomètres au sud de Srinagar, la capitale d’été de l’Etat du Jammu-et-Cachemire, a ajouté ce policier.

Enfin, selon des témoins, un jeune garçon, âgé de 9 ans, est décédé après avoir été battu par des forces paramilitaires dans la capitale d’été du Cachemire, Srinagar.

La police a indiqué qu’elle enquêtait sur les circonstances de la mort de cet enfant, qui a fait descendre dans les rues de Srinagar des foules en colère criant : « Nous voulons la liberté » et « le sang appelle le sang ».

Selon la police, les quatre manifestants ont été tués lorsque les forces de sécurité ont ouvert le feu après avoir tenté en vain de disperser des manifestants avec des matraques et des tirs de gaz lacrymogène. Plus de 70 personnes, dont 39 policiers, ont été blessés dans ces affrontements.

Depuis la mi-juin, des heurts entre la police et des habitants au cours de manifestations contre l’administration indienne ont fait plus de 30 morts. Provoqué par la mort d’un étudiant de 17 ans après un tir de gaz lacrymogène par la police, ce nouveau cycle de violence est le plus grave depuis deux ans.

Le chef du gouvernement du Cachemire indien, Omar Abdullah, a appelé lundi à « briser le cycle de la violence » à l’issue d’une réunion de crise à New Delhi.

Le Cachemire indien est le théâtre depuis vingt ans d’une insurrection contre l’administration de New Delhi qui a fait plus de 47.000 morts, mais un processus de paix entamé en 2004 avec le Pakistan, qui contrôle l’autre partie de cette région himalayenne, avait permis d’enrayer la violence.

Le contrôle de cette région a été le motif de deux des trois guerres qui ont opposé les deux pays rivaux depuis 1947.

Les autorités ont imposé lundi un couvre-feu renforcé dans la région. De nombreux couvre-feux précédents ont toutefois été ignorés par la population.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 3 août 2010.

Publié dans Interventions