Police fire on protesters defying Kashmir curfew

SRINAGAR: Another protester was killed Saturday in revolt-hit Indian-held Kashmir, bringing to five the number of young men shot dead by security forces in two days as fresh violence shook the region.
The latest casualty marked the deadliest two days in the Muslim-majority Himalayan territory since June 11 when the turmoil first erupted after a 17-year-old student was killed by a police tear-gas shell.
So far, Indian security forces have been accused of killing 22 Kashmiri civilians – many of them in their teens or 20s – in less than two months.
The latest young man was killed when “security forces opened fire as a group of protesters tried to attack a police camp,” a police officer said, asking not to be named.
The death brought to five the number of people killed in clashes with security forces since Friday in the northern district of Baramulla, known as a hotbed of separatist sentiment.
Several other demonstrators were injured, one of them seriously, in Saturday’s firing incident in Naidkhai village, the officer said.
The latest round of police firing happened in northern Kashmir as authorities struggled to stop protesters attacking the police camp, a railway station and some government buildings in defiance of a curfew.
Each death has sparked a new cycle of violence despite appeals for calm from state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram.
Authorities said they had imposed a strict curfew on Saturday in all major towns in the Kashmir Valley, but thousands of demonstrators defied the restrictions in at least two towns.
In Sopore, protesters set fire to a railway station, smashing windows and breaking furniture, and hurling stones, another police officer said.
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 and threw stones at a security patrol, prompting security forces to fire in self-defence, injuring two women and one man, he said.
“The condition of one injured woman is critical,” the officer said.
Srinagar, 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, police said.
Police and paramilitary forces were also deployed in strength in other large towns in a bid to keep a lid on demonstrations, the spokesman said. --- Agencies