14 killed, 70 injured in fresh violence in Kashmir

dnaindia.com

Monday, Sep 13, 2010

Fresh violence erupted in Kashmir today leaving 14 dead including a policeman and over 70 injured with mobs torching several government properties and a private school, some of the trouble triggered by a television report alleging desecration of the Koran in the US.The state cabinet, which met this evening, condemned the alleged act of desecration and made a fervent appeal to the people not to take law in their own hands.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voiced concern over the ongoing unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. He also sought to reach out to the people in the state, saying their grievances have to be addressed and promised talks within the Indian Constitution with those who abjure violence.

Five persons were killed and more than 20 others injured in firing by security forces at Tangmarg, 45km from Srinagar, in Baramulla district after protesters went on a rampage setting ablaze a private school, run by a minority educational group, following the report of desecration.

The mob torched a block development office, court chamber, tehsildar’s official vehicle and residence, social welfare office, patwari office and two huts of tourism department, DG police Kuldeep Khoda told reporters.

The agitators then attacked a police station and tried to ransack it, prompting the security forces to fire at them.

While two youths — Muddasir Ahmad Parray and Abdul Majid — were declared dead at the nearby Magam sub-district Hospital, another youth succumbed to injuries at a city hospital in Srinagar. He has been identified as Abdul Qayoom, officials at the hospitals said.

Two injured youths, identified as Afaq Ahmad Khan and Tariq Ahmad Ganai, were declared dead on arrival at a city hospital.

Another mob attacked a security forces camp at Humhama in Budgam district, prompting retaliatory fire in which two were killed.

In Charar-e-Sharief, protesters pelted stones at a CRPF camp, deputy commissioner, Budgam, Rafi Ahmed said. The CRPF personnel resorted to firing to disperse the mob. Seven persons were injured on of whom succumbed to his injuries.

A woman died on the spot when she was hit by a stray bullet inside her residential compound at Ompora in Budgam.

A policeman, Devender Singh, was killed when he was run over by a vehicle while chasing a stone-pelting mob also in Budgam.

In another clash in Bandipora, one person was killed and two others injured when security forces opened fire to quell a stone-pelting mob, police said.

Three other persons lost their lives in clashes in Pampore town of Pulwama district and other parts of the valley.

The state government banned broadcast of all local cable news channels. It also banned international news channel, Press TV, after it aired the report about alleged desecration of the holy book.

« The transmission of Press TV in Jammu and Kashmir has been banned with immediate effect, » state chief secretary SS Kapur told reporters in Srinagar.

He said the move was prompted after reports of the alleged sacrilege act. Also the channel was not registered with the Union information and broadcasting ministry as required by law.

« We believe there is a gameplan…we appeal to the good sense of the people in Kashmir. Please don’t take law in your own hands in this matter. Please cooperate with the administration, » he said.

In New Delhi, the US ambassador Timothy J Roemer expressed dismay over the violence following reports of « a misguided individual desecrating the Koran ».

Meanwhile, chairman of hardline Hurriyat faction Syed Ali Shah Geelani condemned the torching of the private school and appealed to the people to safeguard the property and life of the minorities in the valley.

« Geelani strongly condemns the burning of a private school at Tangmarg. It is our religious duty to safeguard the property and life of the minorities, » party spokesperson Ayaz Akbar said.

Bloody Monday leaves 16 dead across Kashmir

economictimes.indiatimes.com

13 Sep, 2010

SRINAGAR: Sixteen people were killed on Monday as furious mobs clashed with security forces and attacked government property across the Kashmir Valley in protests that were initially triggered by a report that copies of the Quran were desecrated in the US.

While six people were killed in the resort town of Tangmarg, where a Christian missionary school was torched, seven died in Badgam, including a seven-year-old, one in Pampore and one in Bandipora.

Sources said that in south Kashmir’s Anantnag town a youth, identified as Maroof Ahmad Nath, was allegedly chased by the security forces during protests after which he jumped into the Jhelum river and drowned. The police refused to confirm the death till the body is recovered.

With Monday’s deaths, the total number of people killed since the present phase of violent unrest began on June 11 has risen to 86.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who was in the national capital during the day and met Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, rushed to Srinagar where he was holding an emergency meeting of his cabinet.

The latest burst of violence flared up after Iranian TV channel Press TV reported late Sunday that copies of the Quran had been burnt in the US. A pastor in Florida, US, had threatened to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks but later called off the plan.

The state government swung into action as protesters violated curfew — it was the second consecutive day of 24X7 curfew in towns in the Valley — in many parts of the city.

North Kashmir’s Tangmarg town witnessed the worst violence as mobs torched a Christian missionary school, the office of the social welfare department and a police vehicle.

At least six people were killed in violence in the town during the day.

« Mobs in Tangmarg have virtually torched the entire public property in the town including the local treasury, the social welfare office, the office complex of the tehsildar including his official residence, office complex of the block development officer, a tourism department cafeteria and some other offices there, » a police official said.

« Furious mobs refused to relent despite baton charges, tear smoke shelling and aerial firing following which the security forces had no option, but to use firearm, » he said.

The dead in Tangmarg have been identified as Abdul Qayoom, Tariq Ahmad Ganai, Muhammad Iqbal Malik, Mudasir Ahmad Parray, Abdul Majid and Afaq Ahmad.

Doctors in the Tangmarg hospital have, however, said that more than 36 civilians had reported at the hospital with injuries, many of them having bullet wounds.

« We referred most of the injured persons to Srinagar for treatment, » an attending doctor said in Tangmarg.

Reports reaching here said the unrelenting mobs continued to target security forces and public property in the town.

In central Badgam district seven people, including a woman and a seven-year-old, were killed in unrelenting violence.

The woman identified Rafiqa Bano died in clashes between the mobs and the security forces in Ompora area while seven-year-old child Danish Nabi was killed in Charar-e-Sharif.

15 killed in Kahmir as riots reach fever pitch

maltatoday.com.mt

13 09 2010

Kashmir civilians chanted anti-India and anti-US slogans in the most deadly riot since June

Police have shot 15 people dead during protests in Kashmir, India, where police have enforced an indefinite curfew in various major towns in the region; making it the deadliest day in Indian-administered Kashmir since the beginning of protests three months ago.

Numbers of Kashmir civilians have been killed since June, when anti-India protests erupted after police shot dead a teenager.

A police man was also killed after being run over by a vehicle driven by protestors in today’s riots in the town of Humahama.

Thousands of people today took to the streets, defying curfews and shouting anti-India and anti-US slogans, while burning effigies of US president Barack Obama.

An enraged mob set fire to several government buildings as well as a Protestant-run school and a police station.

Police went on to fire live ammunition to break up the demonstrations, and confirmed that 15 civilians had been killed.

Several deaths reportedly occurred in the district of Budgam, and others in the village of Tangmarg, where the school was burned. One of the deceased was a student aged 12 or 13.

Plans by a Florida pastor to burn copies of the Quran during the 9/11 anniversary caused outrage across the Muslim world. Though it was called off, reports that pages of the Quran had been torn out outside the White House last weekend heightened tensions in the Kashmir Valley.

Kashmir has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan for more than 50 years.

Kashmir riots over Qur’an ‘burning’ leave 13 dead

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 13 September 2010

American ambassador appeals for calm after police fire into angry crowds protesting amid Qur’an-burning controversy in US

Indian paramilitary forces on guard in Srinagar, the Kashmir capital, after riots across the territory Photograph: Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Indian forces killed 13 protesters and wounded scores of others today in confrontations across Kashmir fueled in part by a report that a Qur’an was desecrated in the United States, a police official said.

The violence, the worst since separatist protests erupted in June, came as Indian officials debated whether to relax harsh security regulations to try to ease tensions in the disputed territory.

Despite a rigid curfew across the region, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets, throwing rocks, torching government buildings and chanting, « Go India, go back. We want freedom. »

Security forces fired live ammunition at some of the crowds, killing people in at least five villages, said a police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with media.

The protests were inflamed by reports on the Iranian state-run channel Press TV that the Qur’an was desecrated over the weekend in the United States.

US ambassador Timothy Roemer said his government was « dismayed » by the rioting and appealed for calm.

He also condemned any Qur’an desecration as « disrespectful, intolerant, divisive and unrepresentative of American values. The deliberate destruction of any holy book is an abhorrent act. »

Thirteen dead in Kashmir, Christian school torched

AFP

13 09 2010

SRINAGAR, India — Indian police shot dead 13 people in Kashmir on Monday as stone-throwing rioters defied curfews and torched a Christian school in a surge of anger stoked by the desecration of the Koran.

The death toll was the highest for a single day since a wave of anti-India demonstrations began three months ago, with 84 civilians now killed in unrest in the disputed Muslim-majority region. One policeman also died Monday.

In New Delhi, the cabinet met to discuss steps to defuse the tension, but decided against heeding calls from some in the government to partially lift a 20-year-old emergency law that is despised by many in Kashmir.

The cabinet said it was « deeply distressed » by the unrest, but offered no new initiatives besides an all-party meeting for later in the week to discuss solutions.

Some of Monday’s worst rioting was reported in Tangmarg village, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the region’s main town of Srinagar, where a crowd chanted anti-US and pro-Islam slogans before burning down a missionary school.

No one was injured in the fire at Tyndale Biscoe School, but at least five civilians were killed when security forces opened fire on the crowd as it attempted to set fire to government buildings, local police said.

« The loss of property has been huge, » top state police official Kuldeep Khoda told reporters in Srinagar, detailing the day’s unrest which saw at least one mob attack a camp of heavily armed paramilitary forces.

He confirmed that 13 civilians had been killed and one policeman had also died. He said 45 protesters and 130 policemen had been injured, while 52 people were arrested.

« We are taking necessary measures to prevent loss of life and property all over the Kashmir valley, » he added.

Khoda and other local officials blamed Iran’s state-run Press TV for fanning simmering anger in Kashmir with a report on a group of Christians who tore pages from the Koran in a demonstration outside the White House on Saturday.

Local authorities later banned the station from broadcasting on local cable channels.

The US ambassador to India, Timothy J. Roemer, said he was « dismayed » to see the reports of violence and repeated President Barack Obama’s condemnation of the Koran-ripping.

Hardline Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Geelani, who has orchestrated recent anti-India demonstrations, also called for calm and for Christians to be protected.

« I urge the Muslims to protect the members of minority community and their religious places. We should at any cost maintain the age-old communal harmony and brotherhood for which Kashmir is known the world over, » he said.

Kashmir is a disputed territory held partly by India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both.

Since 1990, an anti-India insurgency has raged in the part ruled by New Delhi, claiming an estimated 47,000 lives. A majority of Kashmiris favour independence for the region, according to a recent poll.

The escalating violence, which also saw a local minister’s house attacked at the weekend, has raised pressure on the central government to try a new approach to solving the conflict.

It remains committed to dialogue with peaceful separatists in Kashmir, but faces political pressure from right-wing Hindu nationalists not to accede to any of their demands for autonomy.

« The youth of Kashmir are our citizens and their grievances have to be addressed, » Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told military commanders in New Delhi.

« We are willing to talk to every person or group which abjures violence, within the framework of our constitution. »

He later held talks with senior ministers on whether to lift the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in four districts of the region, but decided against taking any action.

The act was passed in 1958 and extended to Kashmir in 1990.

Human rights groups and local politicians have long campaigned against it, saying the law encourages abuses by the security forces and adds to a sense of occupation in the highly militarised region.

It gives Indian army and paramilitary troops sweeping powers to open fire, search houses, detain suspects and confiscate property, as well as protecting soldiers from prosecution.

Under-fire Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has urged the federal government to withdraw the act, but has met with strong resistance from the Indian military.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 13 septembre 2010.

Publié dans दंगा, émeutes, riots