At least 4 die in anti-India protest in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India (AP) - Police filed a murder case Wednesday against a paramilitary soldier accused of shooting at angry Muslim pro-independence protesters in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as the death toll from days of unrest rose to four.
On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters chanting, “Down with India,” defied a curfew and marched through the town of Baramulla, 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Srinagar, the main city India’s portion of divided Kashmir.
Shops and businesses were shuttered for a second day across the Kashmir Valley in response to a strike call by separatist groups.
Violent protests have rocked Baramulla since Monday, after police detained a man and allegedly molested his wife in this conservative Muslim community in action evocative of volatile demonstrations that broke out in late May after the rape and murder of two local women that many locals blamed on Indian soldiers.
Four people have died and dozens have been injured this week as government troops fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing protesters.
A 14-year-old boy died in a Srinagar hospital Wednesday, a day after he was shot by the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, a police statement said. The shooting killed another protester on Tuesday and two more died Monday.
State police asked the Central Reserve Police on Wednesday to hand over the soldier for prosecution for firing that killed two protesters. The soldier has not yet been formally charged.
Rights groups say investigations into such crimes rarely yield results and are often meant only to calm public anger.
Earlier Wednesday, Indian army soldiers marched through the streets of Baramulla in a show of strength to quell the protests.
Paramilitary soldiers will withdraw from Baramulla and local police will take over their positions, the police statement said.
Anger over alleged police and army brutality has spilled into other parts of the troubled region. Protesters set an army ambulance on fire Wednesday in Pattan, a town 19 miles (30 kilometers) north of Srinagar.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in its entirety by both. The South Asian neighbors have fought two of three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947.
Indian authorities have deployed hundreds of thousands ofparamilitary forces to battle insurgents seeking independence or Indian Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.
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