Five killed in fresh clashes in strife-torn Held Kashmir

Author: AFP

SRINAGAR: A police officer and four militants were killed in separate incidents Sunday in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) as hundreds of residents clashed with security forces in the region hit by weeks of deadly unrest.

“Indian soldiers shot and killed four protesters as they tried to cross the heavily militarised border that divides the disputed region between India and rival Pakistan, an army official said.

“They tried to infiltrate into Nowgam sector and were intercepted. Four of them were killed,” army spokesman NN Joshi said, referring to the area northwest of the main city of Srinagar.

A police officer was also killed in a separate clash in Poonch sector, south of Srinagar, an officer in the area’s police control room told AFP.

Security forces were called in to hunt down the protesters, sparking a fierce and ongoing gun battle, the unnamed officer said, without giving more details.

The encounters with Kashmiris came as stone-pelting residents protesting against Indian rule of the region clashed with troops in Pulwana and two other places in the southern Kashmir Valley, leaving scores injured, police officers said.

Eighty civilians have been killed and thousands injured in the worst violence to hit the Muslim-majority territory since 2010.

A curfew has been lifted from much of the region since protests broke out over the death on July 8 of a popular young freedom fighter in a gun battle with security forces.

But the unrest shows few signs of abating, with residents continuing to take to the streets, while schools and most businesses remain closed, hitting the region’s economy hard.

Earlier on Saturday, one young man was killed in southern Shopian district when his head was hit with a tear gas canister fired by police, a medical officer at the local hospital said. Another protester died of pellet injuries the same day, as government forces fired pump action shotguns to break up a public rally against Indian rule attended by thousands in Botengoo village in southern Kashmir valley, said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

Kashmiris have for decades fought Indian soldiers – currently numbering around 500,000 – deployed in the territory. Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.