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United Nations Chief Calls For ‘Maximum Restraint’ To Curb Kashmir Violence

Wani was the leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, a group fighting Indian control of the disputed region.

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The Kashmir has been on the edge after security forces killed Burhan (22), and two of his associates in a south Kashmir village.

According to the police, death toll from street violence had reached 32, after three young men died overnight. The police opened fire at protestors at Lidyar (Tral) injuring 16 people.

Twenty nine civilians and one police officer were among the killed.

Around 1,000 people have been injured, including almost 100 police, and hospitals say they are overwhelmed.

Indian authorities sent at least 2,000 more law-enforcement troops to the mountainous region on July 11.

While paying rich tributes to commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani, he said that the presence of a sea of people at his funeral is itself a clear referendum against Indian occupation over Jammu and Kashmir, KMS reported.

The State government has urged the Kashmiri separatist groups to appeal people for calm and peace.

Clashes, however, raged on in many parts of the valley as young men armed with rocks defied prohibitory orders to hurl stones at police and paramilitary pickets paralysing normal life across the valley, a Bangladeshi journalist visited the scene said.

Mirwaiz, chairman of the Hurriyat, has also written to United Nations secretary general Ban Ki Moon, asking for an “effective intervention”.

Indian officials also lifted a suspension on the annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountain cave that draws about half a million people each year, and asked that law enforcement ensure the security of the pilgrimage. Kashmir is about 70 percent Muslim.

Mobile internet and train services remained suspended across the valley for the fourth day.

“The visiting people also marched towards Eidgah to mark a protest and chanted pro-freedom and anti-India slogans”, they said.

Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from Britain in 1947, but both claim the picturesque Himalayan territory in its entirety. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over their rival claims to the mostly Muslim region, while each now administers a part of it.

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The unrest sparked a diplomatic spat as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed shock at Wani’s killing and the “excessive force” used by Indian security personnel.

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