The last sentence of this article says it all and demonstrates just how totally screwed-up things are in this region. What a bunch of crazy people… TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) – Security forces in Indian Kashmir on Thursday fired tear-gas to disperse mourners at a funeral procession for one of the three latest victims of anti-India unrest in the disputed region.
Hopes of calm returning after weeks of angry anti-India protests were dashed following clashes on Wednesday evening and Thursday during which security forces killed three more civilians.
Thousands of Kashmiris chanting “we want freedom!” defied a curfew Thursday to join the funeral procession in Srinagar, the summer capital of Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir.
Police fired tear-gas and swung batons to disperse the crowds, injuring at least six people, witnesses and doctors said.
Overnight thousands had joined a funeral of another victim chanting pro-freedom slogans. The protests continued through-out the night.
On Thursday, a protester was killed and ten others injured when security forces opened fire at thousands of Muslims who had defied a curfew and were protesting against Indian rule in southern Pulwama town, a police officer said, asking not to be named.
Doctors said the condition of two of the injured was critical.
The shooting brought more people out on the streets of Pulwama.
Violent demonstrations erupted elsewhere in Kashmir despite an appeal for restraint from influential separatist politician Syed Ali Geelani.
“Demonstrations should be peaceful,” Geelani said Wednesday. “Wherever you are stopped, sit down and tell them ‘now you can fire at us’, but don’t indulge in violence.”
But the latest shootings sparked further protests during which crowds attacked police and paramilitary posts.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a moderate separatist leader, said he had written to the UN chief Ban Ki-moon saying India had “declared an open war in Kashmir.”
“The situation is getting worse and uglier by the day,” Farooq wrote, urging the UN to intervene.
Kashmir has been rocked by violent protests against rule from New Delhi since the death in early June of a teenage student who was killed by a police tear-gas shell.
Some 48 people have been killed, most of them shot dead by security forces, including 31 in the past one week.
India and Pakistan each hold part of Kashmir but claim it in full.
