INDIAN SECURITY forces fired on a protest in the disputed province of Kashmir yesterday, killing seven people and injuring about 60 as tens of thousands demonstrated against New Delhi’s rule over their predominantly Muslim region.
Similar protests over the last seven weeks by Kashmiri youths, who have defied a curfew and hurled stones and rocks at security forces, have left 35 people dead from police fire, 10 of them at the weekend.In parliament yesterday federal home minister P Chidambaram acknowledged that the situation in Kashmir had “taken a serious turn” over the past few days.
Kashmir’s chief minister Omar Abdullah met Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to defuse the cycle of violence in his state.
“The need is to end the violence. Some semblance of normalcy has to be a precursor for any political initiative” Mr Abdullah said.
“I want your co-operation to defeat these elements who are using the blood of the youth for their political interests,” he said on state-run television.
The recent unrest in Kashmir, which is divided between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan but claimed by both, is reminiscent of the late 1980s when protests against Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict that claimed almost 70,000 lives, mostly civilians.
Officials concede that the latest rounds of shootings are cyclical.
Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims chanting “Go India, go back” and “We want freedom” held massive street protests in the provincial summer capital Srinagar and other small towns. They attacked security forces’ camps with rocks and burned police stations and government buildings.Government forces – mostly police and federal paramilitaries – responded with live ammunition and tear gas, leading to the deaths of civilians. Highly charged funeral processions in turn triggered additional violence and fatalities which Mr Abdullah’s government seems unable to contain.
The death in early June of a 17-year-old student sparked off the rolling series of protests against Indian rule. Separatist Kashmiri politicians and militants want to carve out an independent Islamic homeland or merge with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
Since independence in 1947 India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars and a border skirmish over Kashmir.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0803/1224276087555.htmlAt least two people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir in a second day of protests against Indian rule.
Indian police and paramilitaries fired live ammunition and tear gas as demonstrators threw stones.
Protesters gathered in several places to defy an indefinite curfew imposed by the Indian authorities in all major towns across the Kashmir valley.
The curfew was ordered after four people died on Friday as Indian forces dispersed demonstrating crowds.
Twenty-three people, mostly teenagers, have now been killed in the last seven weeks in such clashes, says the BBC's Altaf Hussain, in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.
'Excessive force'
India and Pakistan both claim mostly Muslim Kashmir in its entirety; the nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan territory.
In Saturday's violence, a young man was killed in northern Naidkhai village when Indian forces opened fire as a group of protesters tried to attack a police camp, according to police.
Later in the day, another man was killed when Indian forces opened fire at rock-throwing protesters in neighbouring Baramulla town, police said.
Our correspondent says those killed had bullet wounds in the upper parts of their bodies. Several others were injured.
Protesters also torched two Indian Air Force vehicles in Pampore, a town on the outskirts of Srinagar, police said.
Meanwhile, a group of people in Sopore town set fire to a railway station.
Jammu and Kashmir Law Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar earlier this week accused Indian police of using excessive force against unarmed protesters. Indian authorities denied the charge.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10828633--------------
I'm so glad that UN, Amnesty, USA are keeping out of all this. No International pressure, thats when Indian Forces work best.
Topic: 35 Violent Kashmiri muslim protesters killed by Indian forces (Read 994 times)