Protests in Kashmir despite curfew

Indian paramilitary troopers question an auto-rickshaw driver who was carrying a passenger to hospital in Srinagar yesterday during curfew.Photo: AFP

Indian police used teargas and gunfire to disperse hundreds of protesters in Kashmir yesterday as the death toll among defiant demonstrators rose to five, officials said.
Officers said they also used batons as protesters broke a curfew and gathered in southern Achabal village a day after four people were killed in police shootings and over 100 injured in clashes as the restrictions were flouted.
One of the injured died in hospital Tuesday, doctors said.
"A strict curfew remains in force all over the Kashmir valley," police officer Pervez Ahmed said in summer capital Srinagar, as New Delhi tried to end a series of major demonstrations against its rule in the mainly Muslim region.
The latest troubles were triggered by a state government plan made public in June to donate land to a Hindu shrine trust in the Kashmir valley. The decision was later reversed after massive Muslim protests, angering Hindus.
The crackdown prevented a planned rally on Monday by separatists in Srinagar's historic Red Square.
Ahead of the scheduled event, authorities arrested two leading separatists and detained a third as he tried to march towards the venue.
The three -- Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik -- have recently led some of the largest pro-independence demonstrations since armed militants launched an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989.