Bangkok Post : New death sparks protests in Indian Kashmir
New death sparks protests in Kashmir
* Published: 26/08/2010 at 12:56 AM
Kashmiri women mourn at the funeral of Umar Qayoom, 13, in Srinagar. Thousands of people poured on to the streets of Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar on Wednesday after another protester died, taking the toll in two months of violence to 64, police said.
Thousands of people poured on to the streets of Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar on Wednesday after another protester died, taking the toll in two months of violence to 64, police said.
The teenager who died in hospital on Wednesday had been admitted on Monday. Witnesses said he had been beaten by federal paramilitary forces during a protest against Indian rule.
His family said he had also been tortured by police in custody.
Police said they were investigating the death, which brought thousands of locals out on the streets of Srinagar's Soura district chanting slogans.
Later some of the protesters, chanting "blood for blood" and "Go India, go back", set fire to a police vehicle and a private vehicle parked near a police station, witnesses said.
Police fired live ammunition, teargas and swung batons to disperse the protesters and in the ensuing clashes 12 demonstrators were hurt, police said.
The scenic Kashmir region has been under rolling curfews to contain deadly protests that began with the killing on June 11 of a teenage student in Srinagar by a police tear-gas shell.
India's home minister P. Chidambaram regretted Wednesday that New Delhi was not able to stop the unrest.
"We are concerned that we have not been able to stop the vicious cycle in which that state is caught," he said in an address to police chiefs of all the Indian states in New Delhi, according to Press Trust of India.
"However, it is my hope that, in the next few days, we would be able to find that elusive starting point from where we could reach out to the protestors, reassure them of their rights and dignity."
He said the peace and order would be restored and "the process of dialogue restarted that will lead to a solution."
Separatists opposed to Indian rule have declined to enter into fresh talks until India withdraws troops from civilian areas, repeals tough security laws and releases all the political prisoners.
Immediately after Chidambaram's statement, authorities released senior separatist Yasin Malik who had been detained in early June, police said.
Most parts of Srinagar were under strict curfew on Wednesday after Muslim separatists opposed to Indian rule in the region called on residents to hold protests.
In other Muslim-majority towns where the curfew was not in force, a strike called by separatists to at protests the deaths brought daily life to a standstill, witnesses said.
In Pampore town, 15 kilometres (nine miles), south of Srinagar, a young protester was wounded on Wednesday when security forces opened fire to quell a demonstration, police said.
Anti-India sentiments run deep in Kashmir, where Muslim militants have fought a 20-year insurgency in Indian Kashmir against rule from New Delhi.
The mountainous region, held in part by Pakistan and India but claimed in full by both, has been the cause of two of the three wars the countries have fought since independence from Britain more than half a century ago.