SIMMERING violence and unrest in India’s northern, disputed Kashmir province following the death of eight young men, allegedly in clashes with the security forces over the past fortnight, sharply escalated yesterday.
Police placed more towns under curfew and banned mobile phone text messages as the federal government contemplated deploying the army in case unrest intensified in India’s only Muslim-majority province, wracked by an Islamist insurgency since 1989 that has claimed nearly 70,000 lives.
Thousands of police in riot gear patrolled the state’s summer capital, Srinagar, and surrounding towns as shops, businesses and government offices remained shut for the second consecutive day.
Paramilitary units erected steel barricades and laid razor wire across main roads to prevent public gatherings, while a panicky state government banned the assembly in public of more than five people.
The civilian deaths, amidst confusing and conflicting denials of all involvement by federal paramilitaries and local state police, have brought thousands of Kashmiris onto the streets in defiance of the curfew.
Emulating the Palestinian Intifada movement, the crowds pelted the security forces with stones, chanting “Blood for Blood” and “Freedom for Kashmir”.
In retaliation the security forces claimed they were being forced into responding with shots, tear gas and arrests in a seemingly endless cycle of violence that erupted on June 11th when a 17-year old student died after being hit by a police teargas shell during an anti-India demonstration in Srinagar.
Since then, seven other Kashmiri youths, including a nine-year old schoolboy, had been killed in protests including one who died from serious skull injuries after being allegedly beaten-up by the paramilitary.
Federal security officials view the continuing unrest and violence as a setback for prime minister Manmohan Singh, who pledged to improve human rights in Kashmir during a visit to the troubled state earlier this month.
The protests also bolster hardline separatists who have resisted an accommodation with India, seeking independence or a merger with neighbouring Pakistan.