Kashmir clashes continue as residents defy curfew

bbc

18 September 2010

Police and protesters have clashed violently in Indian-administered Kashmir as residents continued to defy a valley-wide curfew.

In Anantnag, government forces opened fire on a funeral gathering, killing one civilian and wounding several.

In Palhalan, AFP reported that police fired on demonstrators trying to block a highway, killing two men.

Anti-India sentiment is high in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where more than 100 protesters have died since June.

Nearly all of those killed have been shot dead by government forces. The valley has been under an almost round-the-clock curfew for more than a week.

Conflicting accounts

In Anantnag, south of Srinagar, thousands defied the curfew and gathered to mourn 17-year-old Fayaz Ahmad, whose body was recovered from a river on Saturday morning.

Residents said the boy drowned when he was chased by paramilitary soldiers trying to break up an anti-India rally earlier in the week.

Police and soldiers opened fire on a group of mourners, but there are conflicting accounts of the incident.

A police official told AP news agency the shots were fired after some mourners tried to set fire to the house of a pro-India politician. But a resident denied this, telling AP that the gunfire was « unprovoked ».

Quoting another police officer, AFP news agency said that security forces shot at a crowd who pelted stones at officials as they recovered the body from the river.

The Kashmir dispute has been the cause of major tension between India and Pakistan for six decades.

Many analysts see the recent protests as the biggest challenge to Indian rule in Kashmir for 20 years.

Three killed, 12 injured in fresh clashes

NDTV

September 18, 2010

Srinagar: The Kashmir unrest continues. Three people were killed in violence that erupted on Saturday. During the day, one person was killed and 12 others were injured in firing in south Kashmir town of Anantnag. The violence erupted during the funeral procession of a student.

Bilal Ahmad Najaar, who is the district president of the youth wing of People’s Democratic Party, was also injured in the clashes on Saturday. Police say, he was involved in incidents of stone pelting and attack on the house of a political leader earlier on Saturday morning.

In another firing incident, two people were killed in north Kashmir’s Pattan. Police say the crowd tried to block Srinagar-Baramulla highway and resorted to stone pelting .

With these two deaths, the number of people killed in the Valley unrest has gone up to 100 in the last three months.

Meanwhile, coming as a short breather, curfew in some parts of Srinagar was relaxed for a few hours while it continued in the rest of the Valley.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 18 septembre 2010.

Publié dans émeutes, riots