Deaths In Renewed Kashmir Violence
By Aljazeera
31 July, 2010
Aljazeera
A teenage boy and a protester have been killed in clashes in Indian Kashmir, bringing to six the number of people shot dead by security forces in two days.
The unidentified boy was killed on Saturday in the latest bout of violence, Mohammad Usman, a doctor at a north Kashmir hospital, said without giving further details.
The latest casualties marked the deadliest 48 hours in the Muslim-majority Himalayan territory since June 11, when violence first erupted after a 17-year-old student was killed by a police tear-gas shell.
Indian security forces, so far, have been accused of killing 23 Kashmiri civilians - many of them in their teens or 20s - in less than two months.
A police officer who declined to be named said the protester killed on Saturday, a 30-year-old man, met his fate when security forces opened fire at rock-throwing protesters in northern Baramulla town.
Several other demonstrators were injured, one of them seriously, in Saturday's firing incident in Naidkhai village, the officer told the AFP news agency.
Curfew imposed
The latest round of police firing happened in northern Kashmir as authorities struggled to rein in protesters defying a strict curfew that was imposed on all major towns in the Kashmir valley on Saturday.
Each death has sparked a new cycle of violence despite appeals for calm from Omar Abdullah, the state chief minister, and P Chidambaram, the Indian home minister.
Another police officer said in Sopore, protesters set fire to a railway station, smashing windows and breaking furniture, and hurling stones.
Security forces fired shots to disperse the protesters, injuring four people, the officer said, asking not to be named.
In neighbouring Kreeri town, demonstrators torched a counter-insurgency police camp.
They also threw stones at a security patrol, prompting security forces to fire in self-defence, injuring two women and one man, the officer said.
"The condition of one injured woman is critical," the police officer told AFP.
In Pampore, demonstrators torched two Indian Air Force vehicles but police fired tear gas and warning shots and were able to rescue the occupants, police said.
Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, which was also under curfew, looked deserted as troops armed with rifles and batons patrolled the streets.
In some parts of Srinagar, protesters and riot police clashed, according to police.
