Deaths in renewed Kashmir violence

A police officer who declined to be named said the protester killed on Saturday, a 30-year-old man, met his fate when security forces opened fire at rock-throwing protesters in northern Baramulla town.

Several other demonstrators were injured, one of them seriously, in Saturday’s firing incident in Naidkhai village, the officer told the AFP news agency.

Curfew imposed

The latest round of police firing happened in northern Kashmir as authorities struggled to rein in protesters defying a strict curfew that was imposed on all major towns in the Kashmir valley on Saturday.

Each death has sparked a new cycle of violence despite appeals for calm from Omar Abdullah, the state chief minister, and P Chidambaram, the Indian home minister.

Another police officer said in Sopore, protesters set fire to a railway station, smashing windows and breaking furniture, and hurling stones.

Security forces fired shots to disperse the protesters, injuring  four people, the officer said, asking not to be named.
  
In neighbouring Kreeri town, demonstrators torched a counter-insurgency police camp.

They also threw stones at a security patrol, prompting security forces to fire in self-defence, injuring two women and one man, the officer said.
  
“The condition of one injured woman is critical,” the police officer told AFP.
  
In Pampore, demonstrators torched two Indian Air Force vehicles but police fired tear gas and warning shots and were able to rescue the occupants, police said.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, which was also under curfew, looked deserted as troops armed with rifles and batons patrolled the streets.
  
In some parts of Srinagar, protesters and riot police clashed, according to police.