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| India-Pakistan |
| Kashmir shuts down over killing of protesters |
| 2013-07-20 |
| Indian Kashmir largely shut down amid heavy security on Friday after troops shot dead four people during a protest over a paramilitary raid on an Islamic school. Shops, banks, schools and most government offices were closed in towns across the region, after a separatist leader called a three-day strike to protest Thursday’s killings. Srinagar, the main city in the region, was largely deserted after hundreds of police and paramilitary troops were deployed on the streets to halt any demonstrations over the deaths, an AFP reporter on the scene said. Although authorities have not officially declared a curfew in the troubled Himalayan region, residents said they were not being allowed to go about their business. “Early in the morning, troops appeared all around my neighbourhood disallowing people from coming out onto the streets,” a resident of the old part of Srinagar, Farhan Ahmed, said by phone. “It is undeclared curfew." Police officers initially said six protesters were killed in the firing. But inspector-general of police, Rajesh Kumar, clarified on Friday that only four had died. “The fact is that the number of dead is four. The confusion was because we were busy in dealing with law and order and also due to the spotty nature of telecommunications in the mountainous area,” Kumar told AFP. He said 37 protesters were also injured in the incident. The region’s chief minister, Omar Abdullah, condemned the shootings while India’s Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde ordered an investigation, saying the deaths were regrettable. A top separatist leader, Syed Ali Geelani, called for a shutdown to protest the killings. Most separatist leaders have been detained or put under house arrest to prevent them from leading protest rallies, sources said. Chairman of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) called for a protest before he was detained by police on Thursday. The main university in the region postponed examinations scheduled for Friday without announcing any fresh dates. Elsewhere, in Pakistani Kashmir’s main city Muzaffarabad around 500 protesters took to the streets, |
| Posted by:Steve White |