Victims of clashes overwhelm hospital
More than 40 days of clashes between protesters and security forces have overwhelmed the main hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir, where some patients with severe injuries said they had been beaten in their homes by troops.
House-to-house searches continued yesterday, authorities said, for suspected ringleaders of street protests set off by the killing on July 8 of a popular field commander of a Pakistan-based separatist group.
At least 65 people have been killed and 6,000 injured in the ensuing clashes, many of them wounded by shotgun rounds fired by security forces enforcing a curfew across the Muslim-majority region.
Pictures taken by a Reuters photographer at Srinagar's main SMHS Hospital on Thursday showed men with wounds across their backs and buttocks they said had been caused by beatings.
Another showed a crying boy, his head swathed in bandages, being comforted by his family, who said he had been wounded by shotgun pellets.
The Indian army has apologised for the death in custody of Shabir Ahmad Mangoo, a 30-year-old college lecturer. The commander of India's Northern Army denounced the beatings and ordered an inquiry.
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