Kashmiri villagers clash with police over suspected shooting of civilians
Police station torched in Indian Kashmir amid suspicions security forces shot dead seven civilians after mistaking them for rebels
Kashmir police at a parade on Monday. The army said it had killed seven militants during a joint operation with police. Photograph: Mukhtar Khan/AP
Agence France-Presse in Srinagar-
Tuesday 25 February 2014
Hundreds of angry villagers have clashed with police in Indian Kashmirfollowing suspicions that security forces shot dead seven civilians they mistook for rebels.
The villagers torched a police station in the forested Kupwara region close to the defacto border with Pakistan to demand security forces hand over the bodies for identification and burial, an unnamed police officer said.
"Police fired tear gas and warning shots in the air to disperse the angry crowd who were hurling rocks at them," the officer said on condition of anonymity.
A local resident, Manzoor Ahmed, said by phone that one villager was shot and wounded during Tuesday's clashes before paramilitary reinforcements were called in to control the situation.
He said villagers suspected that seven people killed overnight on Monday were civilians rather than armed rebels, as rumours circulated about civilian hunters who had gone missing.
On Monday, the army said it killed seven suspected rebels in Dardpora, a remote village 87 miles (140 kilometres) from the main city of Srinagar, during a joint operation with police.
"The identities of the seven are being ascertained," army spokesman NN Joshi told AFP.
The shootings took place near the highly militarised border that divides the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan. Both countries have claimed the territory in full since independence from Britain in 1947.
About a dozen militant groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for independence or to merge the territory with Pakistan. The fighting has left tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, dead.
The Indian government and security establishment have recently expressed fears of a possible escalation in rebel activity ahead of the country's general elections due by the end of May.
The Indian army has also expressed concern that battle hardened fighters from Afghanistan might turn their attention to Kashmir once again after the withdrawal of US troops from that country.
