By Zahid Rafiq
SOPORE, Indian-Held-Kashmir
Indian armed forces on Monday killed a civilian protestor and wounded four others when they fired into a procession in Sopore town in northern Indian-held-Kashmir.
The dead man, Arshad Ahmad Shah, a 19-year-old student was shot in the chest and died on the spot in the protests against the killing of a local militant belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) during a gun battle in Sopore town, 50 km north of Srinagar earlier in the morning. Indian Armed personnel have imposed a curfew in most of the Sopore town which is likely to remain in effect tomorrow also.
“A man was killed and four others were wounded in the firing on Monday as security forces tried to scatter the protestors,” the Deputy Inspector General of Police in northern Kashmir, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, told the Anadolu Agency.
The two militants were killed in the morning and refused to surrender even as Indian police brought the mother of one of the militants holed inside a building and made her ask him to surrender. He refused and was killed soon after.
Soon after the encounter ended, protesters raised slogans on the streets for Kashmir’s freedom and against Indian rule and threw stones at the soldiers. Indian forces retaliated killing Shah and wounding four others.
The four wounded youth were moved to the city hospital in Srinagar, where doctors said that two of them were in critical condition.
Shah’s killing further intensified the protests across Sopore and people were seen chanting “pro-freedom” slogans.
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 have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
More than 70,000 people have reportedly been killed in the conflict so far.
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