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Three die as protests escalate in Indian Kashmir

29 June 2010 19:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Indian security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Indian Kashmir again on Tuesday, killing three teenagers in violence that risks fuelling more protests, APA reports quoting The Associated Press.
Six people have been killed in the last three days and eleven in less than three weeks during demonstrations against the killing of Kashmiris by Indian forces which began with the death of a schoolboy on June 11.
The fresh shooting in southern Anantnag district, about 55 kilometres (34 miles) south of the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar, came as police widened a crackdown on unrest, placing more towns under curfew and banning mobile phone text messages.
"Two teenagers were killed when paramilitary forces opened fire to disperse a violent demonstration," a police officer said, asking not to be named.
He said that a third who was injured in the shooting died while being taken to hospital, while the condition of another injured victim was critical. The situation in the area remains "very tense," he said.
Indian Kashmir has been wracked by street protests since June 11, when a 17-year-old student died after being hit by a teargas shell fired by police during a pro-independence demonstration in Srinagar.
Crowds of young men have since taken to the streets chanting "Blood for Blood!" and "Freedom for Kashmir!", throwing rocks at security forces and attacking them at their checkposts and bunkers.
India deploys an estimated 500,000 soldiers in Kashmir, which is jointly administered by India and Pakistan, a legacy of British colonial rule on the subcontinent.
Both countries claim Kashmir in full, however, and have fought two of their three wars over it.
Kashmiri separatists and insurgents, who have fought a decades-long battle against India, want independence for the region or for it to join neighbouring Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The chief minister of Kashmir and neighbouring Jammu, Omar Abdullah, appealed for calm and said young people were being "exploited" in the protests by anti-India forces.
"My appeal to everyone is to help the government to restore law and order as soon as possible," said the young British-born politician, who came to power last year promising to improve human rights.
He regretted the loss of life, while defending the security forces who he said had been asked to exercise restraint but faced daily provocations from people throwing stones and breaking curfew rules.
Elsewhere in the region, separatist leaders urged people to observe a general strike for two days from Tuesday, which shut shops, businesses and schools.
A ban on sending text messages was also introduced in an apparent bid to stop protest organisers and separatists communicating.
"We have blocked the service on the instructions of police," Mahesh Shukla, general manager of state-owned telecom department Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, told AFP.
"It will be restored only after we are told to do so by the government."
Mobile phones were launched in Kashmir only in 2003 after security agencies gave the go-ahead.
Violence has risen in recent months in mainly Muslim Indian Kashmir, where two decades of rebellion against Indian rule have killed an estimated 47,000 people.
In a separate incident in the volatile region, three Indian soldiers and five suspected militants died during a gun battle near the de facto border that splits Kashmir between the neighbours, the Indian military said.
"The fighting erupted late Monday when a group of militants tried to sneak into (Indian) Kashmir," army spokesman Vineet Sood told AFP.