Fresh protests against Indian rule in Kashmir
A Kashmiri protester shouts pro-freedom slogans after hearing of Yasir Rafiq Sheikh’s death in Srinagar on Tuesday. Eleven-year-old Sheikh, a cousin of senior separatist leader Yasin Malik, along with four other persons was injured on Monday, when police allegedly opened fire on a group of youths. Residents defied a curfew to hold angry demonstrations against Indian rule. (Reuters)
Published: Sep 1, 2010 00:47 Updated: Sep 1, 2010 01:23
SRINAGAR: Thousands of angry residents defied a curfew in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Tuesday, protesting the overnight killing of an 11-year-old boy by government forces, police said.
Fifteen people were wounded in the southern town of Anantnag late Monday when government forces shot into a crowd despite an appeal last week from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that they use non-lethal measures to control the demonstrations that have become a near daily occurrence in the volatile region.
At least 65 people have died in anti-India demonstrations and clashes between security forces and protesters in Kashmir since June. Each death has triggered more protests despite a rigid curfew in the Kashmir valley.
Anger against Indian rule runs deep in the region, which is divided between Hindu-majority India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan and claimed by both nuclear-armed nations in its entirety.
The latest deadly unrest against Indian rule shows no signs of abating despite the deployment of thousands of troops.
Thousands of residents marched in Anantnag early Tuesday within hours of the death of the young boy.
Police and paramilitary soldiers fired warning shots and tear gas to quell the protests, wounding three people, said a police officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.
In Srinagar, the region's main city, hundreds of men, women and children also held angry protests. They chanted “Go India, go back” and “We want freedom.” Police and paramilitary soldiers withdrew from the area to avoid clashes but sealed off the streets with razor wire and steel barricades.
Meanwhile, India's army said Tuesday it killed nine suspected rebels as they tried to sneak into the Indian portion of Kashmir from the Pakistani side.
The nine were killed in a fierce fighting with the army over the past two days in Uri, a remote region west of Srinagar, said Col. Vineet Sood, an army spokesman.
The area is close to the highly militarized cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. There were no casualties among the Indian soldiers.
There was no independent confirmation of the army's claim.

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