Indian police used teargas and gunfire to disperse hundreds of protesters in Kashmir yesterday as the death toll among defiant demonstrators rose to five, officials said.
Officers said they also used batons as protesters broke a curfew and gathered in southern Achabal village a day after four people were killed in police shootings and over 100 injured in clashes as the restrictions were flouted.
One of the injured died in hospital yesterday, doctors said.
“A strict curfew remains in force all over the Kashmir valley,” police officer Pervez Ahmed said in summer capital Srinagar, as New Delhi tried to end the biggest demonstrations since a revolt against New Delhi’s rule by the region’s Muslim majority broke out in 1989.
The latest troubles were triggered by a state government plan made public in June to donate land to a Hindu shrine trust in the Kashmir valley. The decision was later reversed after massive Muslim protests, angering Hindus.
The crackdown prevented a planned rally on Monday by separatists in Srinagar’s historic Red Square.
Meanwhile, troops searched for separatist leaders yesterday, one day after three were detained in a bid to defuse protests. They raided the homes of another dozen leaders as the manhunt began on Monday night, but there have been few new arrests of senior separatists.
More than 600 people have been injured in clashes over the two weeks of protests. The state, whose tourist brochures proclaim Kashmir valley as “paradise on earth”, has suffered more than US$1 billion in lost business.
“We appeal to the people of Kashmir to continue peaceful protests,” a joint statement of Kashmiri separatists said. “We strongly condemned the excessive use of force against the unarmed protesters.”
The crisis has strained relations between India and Pakistan, which both claim the region. It has also raised fears of communal tension in the state, which is split between the Hindu-majority region around Jammu city and the Muslim Kashmir Valley.
Residents say the deaths have also fueled more anger against India and further alienated Kashmiris from New Delhi.
“During three months of violent protests in Jammu police have killed three Hindus, just three Hindus,” said 45-year-old Gausi Khan, a doctor.
“And in just two weeks these people have killed more than 30 people [Muslims]. This simple mathematics tells you India treats us like slaves,” Khan said.
To enforce the curfew in Srinagar authorities say they have poured more Central Reserve Police Force federal police into the region. Most of these police are Hindus who are from outside the state. They have been criticized by Kashmiris for using excessive force, with reports that they have attacked journalists and ambulance drivers.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS