Four killed, dozens injured in Kashmir clashes

earthtimes.org

13 08 2010

Srinagar, Kashmir – Four people were killed and more than a dozen people injured Friday as protestors defying a curfew clashed with security forces in India-administered Kashmir, police said.

Mudasir Ahmad Zargar, 21, was killed in Kupwara district while three others – Muhammad Arif Mir, 19, Sumeer Ahmad Lone, 18, and Ali Muhammad Khandey, 60, died in Baramullah district, according to police.

Most of the deaths took place when security forces fired at mobs that attacked a paramilitary police camp in Sopore town in Baramullah district and threw stones at security forces in Pattan, also in Baramullah, and in Tregham village in Kupwara.

Several women were among those injured in Tregham.

The death toll in violent street protests in Kashmir over thepast two months has reached 56. More than half the victims were young people including a 9-year-old child.

Several other towns, including Jammu and Kashmir state capital Srinagar and Shopian saw protestors out on the streets defying a curfew order and clashing with security forces.

The violent street protests that have rocked the disputed Kashmir region since late May showed no signs of abating with separatist leaders issuing calls to defy the curfew and hold protest marches.

The Muslim-majority Kashmir valley has seen a security clampdown in response to the protests.

Strong anti-India sentiment in the area often pits protestors against security forces, who are present in large numbers to control a violent secessionist movement which peaked in the late 1980s.

India has accused neighbouring Pakistan of aiding Kashmiri militants, a charge Islamabad has denied, calling them freedom fighters

Stone-pelting mob clashes with police

Express news service

Sat Aug 14 2010

Half a dozen people including policemen were injured as police fired teargas shells and a fired warning shots in the air to disperse an unruly mob pelting stones in the town on Friday afternoon.

Sources said that trouble erupted when a group of people, soon after Friday prayers, went to the bazaar to make people pull down their shutters to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir. However, on not getting the desired response as they were too few people, they returned to the mosque to ask more people to join them.

After some time, when they again tried to go to the bazaar to force closure of shops, they were stopped by a contingent of police headed by Station House Officer of Banihal Police Station, Sajjad Ahmed Mir. As the mob resisted and started pelting stones, police lobbed teargas shells and fired warning shots to disperse them.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 14 août 2010.

Publié dans émeutes, riots