Kashmir seethes as 25 killed in clashes with Indian forces
Source: Globe & Mail
Published Monday, Jul. 11, 2016 10:39AM EDT
Indian authorities struggled to contain street protests Monday by Kashmiris defying patrols and a stringent curfew after at least 25 people died in clashes that followed the killing of a top rebel leader.
Paramilitary troops and police in riot gear patrolled villages and towns in the Himalayan region. Most shops were shuttered, businesses were closed, and cellphone and mobile internet services were suspended in parts of the region. But crowds ignored the clampdown and clashed with government troops in parts of the main city of Srinagar and several other places in the region.
At least two teenagers injured in the clashes died in a hospital on Monday, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
The protests erupted Saturday, a day after Indian troops killed Burhan Wani, the young leader of Kashmir’s largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, which has been fighting since the 1990s against Indian rule. Wani, in his early 20s, had become the iconic face of Kashmir’s militancy, using social media to rally supporters and reach out to other youths like him who had grown up while hundreds of thousands of Indian armed forces have been deployed across the region.
Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/kashmir-seethes-as-25-killed-in-clashes-with-indian-forces/article30849267/
