Indian forces kill ten as violence surges in Kashmir

Indian soldiers have shot and killed at least 10 people in a series of fierce clashes and ensuing protests across Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Five pro-independence fighters, including a Kashmir University professor, were killed in a fierce gunfight with Indian troops in Shopian district south of the capital Srinagar on Sunday.

The deceased professor has been identified as Mohammad Rafi Bhat with the Kashmir University's Sociology department.

Shesh Paul Vaid, director general of police, said that on Friday police "brought his father from his home to persuade him to surrender, but he, like all of them, refused." 

According to a university statement, Kashmir University, where he taught, was ordered closed for two days.

A top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a key pro-independence group, was also among the dead.

Following the fierce clashes, thousands of residents took to the streets in southern Kashmir to show support for the slain fighters. The angry demonstrators chanted slogans demanding an end to Indian rule. 

A large number of protesters were injured in clashes with Indian forces firing live rounds, pellet guns and tear gas. 

A doctor at a hospital in Shopian said hundreds of injured needed treatment. "We have reached our full capacity. We have run out of essential medicines, there are no more ambulances."

On Saturday, three fighters and a civilian died during a firefight in Srinagar, the main city in the disputed region.

A curfew was ordered in Srinagar on Sunday and mobile internet services were shut down in much of the Muslim-majority region.

Fighting in Kashmir this year has left 120 people dead, including 22 civilians.

New Delhi has deployed some 500,000 soldiers to the disputed region to further boost security of the borderline and enforce a crackdown on pro-independence demonstrations in its share of Kashmir, where anti-India sentiments are high. 

New Delhi is also preparing to deploy elite commandos from its National Security Guard, known as Black Cats, to the disputed territory.

Kashmir lies at the heart of a bitter territorial dispute since India and Pakistan became independent in 1947.

Cross-border frictions have recently flared up between troops from the two neighbors along the disputed de facto border in Kashmir. The two sides have accused each other of provocation.

New Delhi and Islamabad both claim the region in full, but rule parts of it. Pakistan administers one-third of Kashmir, with the remaining two-thirds under India’s control. 

Thousands of people have been killed in the unrest in Kashmir over the past two decades.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk