Thousands of people rushed to buy essential supplies during a brief relaxation of a curfew in Indian Kashmir yesterday, a day after troops killed 14 Muslims protesting a trade blockade and the death of a key separatist leader.
Police and paramilitary forces patrolled the streets of Jammu- Kashmir state’s main city, Srinagar, to prevent a repeat of Tuesday’s violence during the three-hour respite from the indefinite curfew, police inspector Sajad Ahmed said.
It was the first curfew imposed on the divided Himalayan region in 18 years.
Indian authorities ordered the lockdown after separatist leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz and four others were killed on Monday during a protest by tens of thousands of Muslims.
Nevertheless, thousands of Kashmiris took to the streets of Srinagar again on Tuesday and a battle erupted with police.
Fourteen people were killed in protests across Jammu-Kashmir, in the bloodiest day the region has suffered in two months of unrest.
MOURNING
Hundreds of mourners meanwhile accompanied the body of 18-year-old student Faisal Ahmed in a funeral procession in Srinagar yesterday, after he succumbed to injuries sustained during Tuesday’s street battles.
No violence was immediately reported. The 13 others were buried on Tuesday.
Ahmed, the police inspector, said authorities would consider lifting the curfew again later yesterday if the situation remained calm.
Some 100,000 mourners attended Aziz’s funeral on Tuesday at the Martyrs’ Graveyard in Srinagar, vowing to fulfill his legacy and achieve independence for Kashmir from India.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over the region and both claim it in its entirety.
VIOLENCE
More than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
Aziz was killed on Monday when police fired into a large crowd of Muslims attempting to march to the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir to protest a blockade by Hindus of the highway linking the Kashmir Valley with the rest of India.
Violence has roiled the region since June 23 when Muslims and Hindus began tit-for-tat protests over a government proposal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in India’s only Muslim-majority state.
The protests have crystalized anti-Indian feeling in Kashmir just as Indian forces appeared to be gaining an upper hand in their nearly two decade fight against the region’s separatist rebels.
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