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Mass protests continue in Srinagar
Indian police officers try to stop senior separatist leader Noor Mohammad Kalwal, center, and his supporters from proceeding onwards during a protest march in Srinagar. Businesses, schools and government offices remained closed for the second day following the deaths of two young women locals claim were raped and murdered. — AP SRINAGAR: Thousands of Muslims marched in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city Thursday with the body of a fellow protester, clashing with troops in anti-India demonstrations that began when locals accused Indian soldiers of raping and killing two women. Nissar Ahmed died in a local hospital in Srinagar, on Thursday. A tear gas shell hit his forehead earlier this week, said a police officer on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy. Thousands defied government restrictions on public gatherings and took Ahmed's body in a procession, chanting 'we want freedom' and 'blood for blood.' Clashes with troops erupted in at least four locations after police and paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas shells to break up the protests, the officer said. Anti-Indian sentiment runs so deep in the Muslim-majority Kashmir and suspicious deaths are often quickly blamed on Indian forces. More than 250 people have been wounded in protests since Saturday, when authorities recovered the bodies of a 17-year-old girl and her 22-year-old sister-in-law in a shallow stream in Shopian, 35 miles (60 kilometers) south of Srinagar. Police have said the women appear to have drowned, but their families and locals accuse Indian government forces of raping and killing them. The military and paramilitary groups have not responded to the allegations. Human rights groups and separatist leaders have long accused the Indian military of using rape and sexual molestation to intimidate the local population. Shops, businesses and government offices remained closed in much of Kashmir for the fourth day on a strike called by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Kashmir's main separatist conglomerate of nonviolent political groups. Thousands of government troops patrolled the streets and erected steel barricades at street crossings in Srinagar and other major towns. Omar Abdullah, Indian Kashmir's top elected official, on Monday ordered a judicial probe into the deaths, but the protests have continued. Rights groups say such probes rarely yield results and are often meant only to calm public anger. Most in Kashmir favor independence from India or a merger with Pakistan. The region is divided between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, and both claim the region in its entirety. Militant separatist groups have been fighting since 1989 to end Indian rule. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the uprising and subsequent Indian crackdown. — AP DAWN: Thursday, 04 Jun, 2009 |
