Kashmir separatist groups are house arrested by the state authorities after the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani.
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The protests erupted over the weekend after Indian troops killed the popular, young leader of the largest rebel group in the Indian-administered region beset by an insurgency since the 1990s.
His killing has triggered protests and clashes in Kashmir and in four days of clashes, 32 civilians were killed in security forces action on protestors while a policeman also died when an armoured vehicle he was travelling in was pushed into river by a mob in Sangam area of Kashmir.
At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds injured so far in clashes with security forces after Wani was killed.
While curfew was clamped in most parts of Kashmir for the fourth consecutive day, an injured youth succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday morning, taking the death toll to 31 following the killing of Hizb Militants.
He said most of the deaths had occurred on Saturday when mobs attacked police and other security installations in south Kashmir but all the deaths could not be accounted for as the situation did not allow the law enforcing agencies to gather information. Authorities appealed for calm and said they would investigate the complaints. Still, crowds ignored curfews to demonstrate in several places around the region.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in her appeal through local Radio and Doordarshan has urged people not to indulge in violence.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on all parties in the valley to exercise “maximum restraint” and address the tense situation there through peaceful means.
The two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.
Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
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A Kashmiri Muslim (2-L) is assisted after being hit by live ammunition fired by Indian security forces during a protest, at a hospital in Srinagar, July 13, 2016. India maintains over half a million soldiers in IHK. Medical sources have expressed serious concern that a severe lack of blood and life-saving medicines could cause more deaths.
