13 July 2016•Update: 13 July 2016
By Zahid Rafiq
SRINAGAR, Jammu Kashmir
Indian-held Kashmir remains tense as two more civilian protesters died due to gunfire from Indian forces Wednesday while the body of another young man was fished out of the water, bringing the overall civilian death toll to 35.
According to the Indian police in the region, one of the youths was killed in south Kashmir’s Hillar area Wednesday evening, while another had been critically injured Monday by police and succumbed today.
The young man whose body was retrieved today had been missing since Saturday after he went to Tral to offer funeral prayers for Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the slain 22-year-old militant commander whose killing by Indian forces sparked the present wave of protests in Kashmir.
While a curfew and restrictions imposed by Indian authorities continued for the fifth consecutive day, the entire region observed a complete shutdown of businesses and offices to protest Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and civilians took to the streets in scores of places across Kashmir, throwing stones at Indian forces.
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
The two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.
Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
More than 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed so far in the violence, most of them by Indian forces. India maintains over half a million soldiers in IHK.
A part of Kashmir is also held by China.
