A Kashmiri woman pleads with Indian paramilitary soldiers to let her cross a temporary checkpoint during curfew in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, July 12, 2016.
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Mourners carry the body of Burhan Wani, chief of operations of the rebel group Hizbul Mujahideen, during his funeral procession in Tral, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, on Saturday.
Wani’s death triggered protests in Kashmir which Indian police responded to with force.
The young Kashmiri freedom fighter Burhan Wani was killed in a shootout with police on Friday in a village that triggered widespread protest in the Indian-held valley and has since paralysed business across the disputed territory.
The group has fought against Indian rule since the 1990s, and Wani was known for using social media to promote the group’s ideology and attract the attention of young people who have grown up with hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed around them, according to the BBC.
Another youth, Ishfaq Ahmad of Batpora Sopore was killed during clashes in north Kashmir’s Kralpora area in Kupwara district.
Forty weapons, including AK-47 rifles, INSAS rifles, one light machine gun and dozens of magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were looted by angry mobs during the destruction of four police stations in south Kashmir on Saturday and Sunday.
The separatists termed the state government’s appeal for help to restore normalcy as “childish and illogical”. “He highlighted that such brutal use of force is not acceptable under any circumstances”, it said. Many people have suffered bullet wounds and injuries from pellets.
Authorities have strengthened the presence of security forces on ground in vulnerable areas of the city and elsewhere in the Valley to contain the protests, the official said. Both countries believe they have a right to it, and have reached an uneasy truce at the “line of control” which divides Kashmir between the two countries.
“The Prime Minister of Pakistan has expressed his deep shock at the killing of Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani and many other civilians by the Indian military and paramilitary forces”, Sharif’s office said in the statement.
“We do not know if firearms were used, but the protesters were pushed back”, he said, adding there were no immediate reports of casualties.
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The Indian side has seen several separatist movements, including a bloody armed rebellion launched in 1989 to demand independence or a merger with Pakistan.
