AFP: Curfew briefly relaxed in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India A week-long curfew was briefly lifted in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Saturday even as anti-India protests claimed the life of another demonstrator, police said.
The protester died in hospital Saturday after being injured the previous day when security forces opened fire during a demonstration in the northern town of Sopore in Indian Kashmir which has been roiled by a 20-year insurgency against New Delhi's rule.
Police said they were forced to resort to firing after teargas and baton charges failed to subdue the crowd.
The Muslim-majority region has been rocked by violent demonstrations against New Delhi's rule since the death in early June of a teenage student who was killed by a police tear-gas shell.
Some 49 people have been killed, many of them young men and teenagers shot dead by security forces, including 32 in the past eight days.
In Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, curfew was relaxed for the first time in seven days, prompting panic buying by residents to stock up on food supplies.
"We are relaxing the curfew for two hours," the police announced through loudspeakers mounted on vehicles in Srinagar, a city of one million people.
While main markets remained shut to protest at the killings, smaller neighbourhood shops opened.
They reported they were running out of supplies as buyers emptied shelves.
"I am struggling to get some baby food for my three-year old daughter," said housewife Bilkees Jan, 29, after returning empty-handed from three shops.
The protests in the past eight weeks have been some of the biggest anti-India demonstrations in Indian Kashmir since 2008.
The curfew was imposed last Saturday in Srinagar and other towns in the Kashmir valley by authorities who hoped to prevent further protests.
Curfews were also eased in a few other towns, police said.
State government authorities said they were seeking to provide enough food and medicine for the Himalayan region.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir and New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of training Muslim militants fighting Indian rule.
SRINAGAR, India A week-long curfew was briefly lifted in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Saturday even as anti-India protests claimed the life of another demonstrator, police said.
The protester died in hospital Saturday after being injured the previous day when security forces opened fire during a demonstration in the northern town of Sopore in Indian Kashmir which has been roiled by a 20-year insurgency against New Delhi's rule.
Police said they were forced to resort to firing after teargas and baton charges failed to subdue the crowd.
The Muslim-majority region has been rocked by violent demonstrations against New Delhi's rule since the death in early June of a teenage student who was killed by a police tear-gas shell.
Some 49 people have been killed, many of them young men and teenagers shot dead by security forces, including 32 in the past eight days.
In Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, curfew was relaxed for the first time in seven days, prompting panic buying by residents to stock up on food supplies.
"We are relaxing the curfew for two hours," the police announced through loudspeakers mounted on vehicles in Srinagar, a city of one million people.
While main markets remained shut to protest at the killings, smaller neighbourhood shops opened.
They reported they were running out of supplies as buyers emptied shelves.
"I am struggling to get some baby food for my three-year old daughter," said housewife Bilkees Jan, 29, after returning empty-handed from three shops.
The protests in the past eight weeks have been some of the biggest anti-India demonstrations in Indian Kashmir since 2008.
The curfew was imposed last Saturday in Srinagar and other towns in the Kashmir valley by authorities who hoped to prevent further protests.
Curfews were also eased in a few other towns, police said.
State government authorities said they were seeking to provide enough food and medicine for the Himalayan region.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir and New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of training Muslim militants fighting Indian rule.
