There were no fresh street protests, a rare breather in
almost daily protests.
However, the 20-year-old protester wounded in a street
battle with government forces on Sept. 13 died in hospital in the main city of
Srinagar, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not
authorized to talk to reporters.
Kashmir has been rocked by deadly civil unrest since early
June, with at least 107 people killed in protests and clashes with government
forces — mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s.
Human rights group Amnesty International has urged Indian
authorities to investigate the killings and stop using lethal force against the
demonstrators.
Last Friday, the government deployed the army for crowd
control as protests by Kashmiris escalated in the region.
Thousands of armed troops enforced the round-the-clock
curfew in Srinagar and other major towns in Kashmir on Wednesday. They put up
razor wire and iron barricades and asked people to stay in their homes in announcements
over loudspeakers fitted to their armored vehicles.
People were allowed to stock up on food and other items
during a brief relaxation in the curfew on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, nearly 40 lawmakers from major Indian national
parties concluded a three-day visit to the region on Wednesday.
Led by Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, the
delegation came from New Delhi to find ways to address long-standing demands of
Kashmiri Muslims for self-rule or a merger with a predominantly Muslim
Pakistan.
Kashmiri separatist leaders met some of the lawmakers on
Monday, but they dismissed the visit as grandstanding by the Indian government.
Since 1989, a violent separatist insurgency and an ensuing
crackdown by Indian forces have killed an estimated 68,000 people, mostly
civilians, in Kashmir. The insurgency has waned in recent years. Resistance
against Indian rule is now principally through street demonstrations.
The Himalayan region is divided between arch nuclear rivals
India and Pakistan and both claim it in its entirety.
