Angry protesters clashed with troops in Indian Kashmir on Monday, injuring dozens in ongoing protests over Residents said the two women, aged 17 and 22, were abducted, raped and killed by security forces on Friday in Shopian town, 60 km (37 miles) south of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital. Indian authorities denied the killing and said the women drowned in a stream. A police statement on Saturday said a postmortem revealed no marks of violence.
Kashmir's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, ordered a judicial inquiry into the deaths. "I can assure the people of Jammu and Kashmir, that we will not shield anybody, no matter what force they belong to ... whether they are civilians or non-civilians," Abdullah told a news conference.
Authorities called for restraint and warned people not to take the law into their own hands after protesters ransacked government vehicles and damaged buses. The strike called by Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, also closed schools, colleges and many government offices in Kashmir. In Srinagar, the focus of a 20-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands, most streets were deserted except for security patrols on the roads.
The strike call was backed by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed by India for last year's Mumbai attacks. "Lashkar-e-Taiba and Kashmiri people have resolved to continue struggle against Indian forces and protect the chastity of Kashmiri women," the group's spokesman, Abdullah Gaznavi, said in a statement.