100 Kashmiri students hurt in anti-India protests
Print Edition
AT least 100 Kashmiri students were injured yesterday in anti-India protests and clashes with government forces in the divided Himalayan region.
The protests began in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s key city of Srinagar when hundreds of college students took to the streets to protest a police raid in a college in southern Pulwama town on Saturday, in which at least 50 students were injured.
Police said the first clash occurred after officers tried to stop hundreds of students from marching in the city’s main commercial hub. The students were chanting slogans “Go India, go back” and “We want freedom.”
The protests soon spread to several colleges in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir, leading to pitched battles between rock-throwing students and government forces firing shotgun pellets and tear gas. At least 100 students were reported injured. Officials said some police officers also were hurt.
Kashmiris have been seething with anger since April 9, when eight people were killed by government troops during clashes on a polling day for India’s parliament seat. Only about 7 percent of the area’s nearly 1.3 million voters cast ballots, the lowest turnout in elections over the past five decades.
Yesterday’s protests were called by Kashmir University Students Union, a banned student body. A statement by the students’ union said that Saturday’s violence highlighted India’s “sole ‘policy’ in Kashmir: to rule by repression and fear.”
Rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.
Since 1989, rebel groups have been fighting for independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. About 70,000 people have been killed in the rebel uprising and a subsequent Indian military crackdown.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
