"4 die as Kashmiris protest despite curfew" by Associated Press | August 4, 2010
SRINAGAR, India — Four people were killed yesterday as thousands of protesters ignored police warnings they would be shot on sight if they defied a round-the-clock curfew declared in Indian-controlled Kashmir in an attempt to quell weeks of civil unrest against Indian rule.
I don't think police blasting away is going to help.
More than 20 people were injured in clashes with government forces as they gathered or marched in the main city of Srinagar and two villages, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Two protesters were killed in Srinagar where government forces fired at hundreds who hurled rocks and shouted, “Go India! Go back!’’ and “We want freedom.’’ The news of those casualties brought out more demonstrators, the officer said.
Oh, they WANT FREEDOM, 'eh?
Then why isn't Obama and his government out on front?
In fact, I haven't even heard any condemnation. India might as well be Israel as far as Kashmiris are concerned.
Another person was killed in the firing by government forces in the southern village of Frisal where thousands of protesters set a police station on fire, the officer said. At least 15 people were wounded, six critically.
You know, you GUN DOWN PEOPLE in the streets and you are going to GET THAT REACTION!
And maybe THAT is the POINT, huh?
INDIA can MOVE IN MORE TROOPS and prepare for WWIII -- due to arrive in a handful of days with a false-flag nuke attack in AmeriKa followed by an USraeli bombing run on Iran.
Clashes also erupted in Zainakote, a village on the outskirts of Srinagar, where protesters hurled rocks at the troops, said the officer. Troops fired to disperse them, killing one and wounding at least two others.
If this were Thailand or Iran the papers would be screaming about it.
Four people were injured, one of them critically, when paramilitary soldiers fired on protesters in the northern town of Baramulla, he said.
Meanwhile, a young Kashmiri Muslim died in a hospital in Srinagar yesterday, two days after he was injured by police fire in the southern town of Khrew, the officer said.
Hundreds also defied the curfew in the western town of Budgam and held a protest march. Government forces fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the protesters, injuring four people, the police officer said.--more--"
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Chaos in Kashmir
"In Pakistani Kashmir, another 22 people were killed and more than 30 injured Thursday as dozens of houses collapsed due to heavy rains, said the regional prime minister Sardar Atique Ahmed....
--MORE--"
And that was days ago.
I can only imagine the toll has increased.
Also see: Pakistan's Epic Flood
Paddling Through Today's Pakistan Flood Coverage
And meet the new Muslim warriors (according to my agenda-pushing, war-promoting paper):
"a new kind of warrior — the stone-throwing youth"
Not to be found only in Palestine!
"Kashmiris seeking independence storm streets, defy curfews" by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times | August 5, 2010
I should have known.
NEW DELHI — Thousands of people defied round-the-clock curfews in the disputed province of Kashmir yesterday, burning police vehicles in the streets of the state’s summer capital, Srinagar, shouting ”Azadi,” or freedom, and chanting anti-Indian slogans.
Because they want self-determination?
Dozens of people have died this summer in violence in Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan, and the unrest has prompted new questions about the state’s ability to control the restive region.
Despite the security forces’ shoot-on-sight orders to enforce curfews aimed at cooling the public’s rage, thousands of people openly took to the streets yesterday, apparently to no consequence.
We call it a BACKFIRE around here.
Omar Abdullah, the state’s chief minister, rushed to New Delhi on Monday to ask for more troops to help quell the protests, and reinforcements, including a specially trained riot control team, are on the way, according to government officials.
Hmmmmmmmmm!
But more security forces are unlikely to solve the most immediate problem: angry protests, often including stone-throwing mobs of young men and boys, that government forces respond to by firing live bullets into the crowd. The resulting deaths beget yet more protests, which lead to more killing.
I would like to know when GOVERNMENT BREAKS that CIRCLE because they are SUPPOSED to be BETTER than the RABBLE, right?
Isn't it their job -- so they tell me here, anyway -- to PREVENT SOCIETAL DISSOLUTION and CHAOS, not PROVOKE IT?
This cycle — of protest, killings, then more protests — has gripped Kashmir all summer and shows no signs of abating. If anything, Kashmiris seem more emboldened to defy curfews than they were last month, when the death of a student prompted two weeks of violent protests that ultimately ended only when the Indian army was called in.
Yeah, yeah, Muslims are always violent (maybe with good reason for cripe's sake!); however, the oppression has obviously backfired.
It is time for India to leave.
The violence reached such a peak that even separatist leaders, who often urge young protesters onto the streets, appealed for calm and an end to the burning of government property.
Yeah, that never makes 'em look good (which raise a whole set of provocateur questions); however, YOU CAN'T GO GUNNING PEOPLE DOWN in the STREETS!
NOT OVER THERE!
Maybe over here, not over there.
Kashmiri Muslims in a funeral procession in Srinagar yesterday for a man who died after being shot by police. (Dar Yasin/ Associated Press)
You don't have enough bullets. LOOK at them all!!!
And you guys are pissing them off.
”Violence and acts of arson have no place in our struggle against Indian rule,” said Syed Ali Geelani, a hard-line separatist leader, in an appeal broadcast on Indian television.
Is he channeling Gandhi?
Both India and Pakistan claim the Kashmir Valley, a predominantly Muslim region that was divided between the countries more than 60 years ago. But many Kashmiris want independence, and in the 1990s an insurgency, fought by militants trained in Pakistan, ripped through the region.
Yeah, yeah, blame Pakistan again.
My main beef is IF INDEPENDENCE is GOOD ENOUGH for KOSOVO it is GOOD ENOUGH for KASHMIR!!
In recent years armed revolt has all but disappeared, only to be replaced by a new kind of warrior — the stone-throwing youth.
PFFFFFT!
Against GUNS and who knows what else!
Related:
"It is now the focal point for seemingly bottomless Kashmiri rage at the continuing presence of the roughly 500,000-strong Indian security force here.... a full-scale occupation..... They remain even though violence.... has fallen to its lowest point in two decades.... rapes by soldiers, extrajudicial killings, and a lack of redress are endemic, not least because security forces are largely shielded from prosecution by laws put in place when Indian troops were battling a once-potent insurgency here.... About 68,000 people have died in the 20-year conflict."
Also see: India's Mass Graves
I think my MSM jewspaper has become unraveled.
More: Female protesters pile on pressure in Indian Kashmir
Not just the boys, huh?
Violence and curfews have left many Kashmiris feeling trapped between bullets and stones.
”Even animals in the zoo see the light of the day; we are even bereft of that,” said Seerat Zahra, who lives in Srinagar and says she witnessed Indian security forces fire on a crowd of protesters outside her door Tuesday. ”We can’t even move out or look outside from the window. It is suffocating.”
Students can’t attend school, residents said, receiving assignments by e-mail. Life is on hold.
Such as it is.
”It has been more than a month — they haven’t been to school, not opened their books, their exams are coming up,” Nafeesa Ali, a teacher, said of her two children. ”We are not getting proper food to eat.
I'm sure a lot of Indians know how you feel:
It's a class thing, and most people ain't in the club!
I am cooking whatever vegetables I have grown in my backyard . . . God knows when this circle of violence will end.”
He's the only one able to put an end to it as far as I can see.
--more--"
May he please hurry.
Some of us thinking, caring, feeling Americans are really hurting (as blog editor holds back the tears of shame for what his nation has done in this world).
And did you NOTICE?
Not ONE BLEAT out of the U.S. GOVERNMENT about India's repression and violence against protesters.
