India | Kashmir seethes as 25 killed in clashes

Kashmiri Muslim protesters taunt Indian policemen as they clash in Srinagar

Indian authorities struggled to contain street protests yesterday by Kashmiris defying patrols and a stringent curfew after at least 25 people died in clashes that followed the killing of a top rebel leader.
Paramilitary troops and police in riot gear patrolled villages and towns in the Himalayan region. Most shops were shuttered, businesses were closed, and cellphone and mobile internet services were suspended in parts of the region. But crowds ignored the clampdown and clashed with government troops in parts of the main city of Srinagar and several other places in the region.
At least two teenagers injured in the clashes died in a hospital yesterday, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
The protests erupted Saturday, a day after Indian troops killed Burhan Wani, the young leader of Kashmir’s largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, which has been fighting since the 1990s against Indian rule. Wani, in his early 20s, had become the iconic face of Kashmir’s militancy, using social media to rally supporters and reach out to other youths like him who had grown up while hundreds of thousands of Indian armed forces have been deployed across the region.
Police Inspector-General Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani described Wani’s killing as the “biggest success against militants” in recent years.
Pakistan’s foreign secretary expressed its concerns over the killings of Wani and civilian protesters to Indian authorities yesterday. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry conveyed to Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale that the use of force against peaceful protesters was a human rights violation and that a fair inquiry should be made into the killings, according to the secretary’s statement.
At least 24 civilians and one policeman have died from wounds sustained in clashes since Saturday, as law enforcement officers used live ammunition, pellet guns and tear gas to try to break up the protests.
Pakistan and India each administer part of Kashmir but claim the region entirely. In the portion controlled by India, opposition to India is strong. Many in the region of 12 million people resent the deployment of hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and openly voice support for the rebels fighting for independence or a merger with neighboring Pakistan. MDT/AP