SRINAGAR: Thousands of people marched in the streets of a southern Kashmir town yesterday, accusing Indian police of killing a Muslim carpenter, witnesses said, the second incident in a month involving security forces.
“Indian troops go back, we want freedom,” the protesters shouted as they marched with the body of 35-year-old carpenter Ghulam Mohiudin Malik in the Pakharpora area of south Kashmir.
Villagers accused federal police of gunning down Malik near his home on Wednesday night. Police said they retaliated after coming under heavy fire from separatist militants.
The incident comes only weeks before a general election in India. Last year the Congress-led ruling coalition faced the worst demonstrations against Indian rule in the Himalayan region since the insurgency broke out in 1989. Dozens were killed.
In February, Indian Army soldiers allegedly fired at a vehicle in north Kashmir killing two villagers. The state government has ordered an investigation into the deaths that triggered massive protests.
Authorities in the past have denied systematic human rights violations in Kashmir and say they probe all such reports and punish the guilty.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the region since 1989.
But overall violence involving Indian troops and separatists has declined significantly across Kashmir since India and Pakistan, which both claim the region but rule in part, began a slow-moving peace process in 2004. New Delhi has put a “pause” on that dialogue after last November’s Mumbai attacks, in which nearly 200 people were killed.
