SRINAGAR – Neighbourhood residents say that an armoured vehicle drovewildly into a crowd of protesters in Kashmir’s largest city, slamming intoa half-dozen people and crushing one man beneath its wheels, injuring himcritically.
Officials say that’s nonsense, and that the vehicle was surrounded by acrowd of angry young men, some of whom fell beneath the jeep-like car whenthey tried to pull the soldiers out and lynch them.
“It was a situation created by the crowd. We showed extreme restraint,”said Sanjay Sharma, a spokesman for the paramilitary force involved.
A police officer offered a third version. The vehicle, he said,accidentally strayed into an area crowded with protesters, then struck somepeople when the driver realised what had happened and tried to get quicklyaway.
“It was a mistake,” said the police officer, who spoke on condition ofanonymity because he wasn’t authorised to comment.
An AP photographer captured the horror in a series of photographs, thougheven he couldn’t see how everything transpired.
Protesters regularly spill into the streets of Srinagar after Friday prayerservices, demanding an end to New Delhi’s rule over India-held Kashmir.
The protests were largely peaceful on Friday, with security forces hangingback after the previous week, when over 50 people were injured in fierceclashes.
“Police and soldiers were standing at a safe distance from the crowd,avoiding confrontation. And then from nowhere this vehicle ran into thecrowd,” said resident Reyaz Ahmed.
The vehicle rocked back and forth for about 30 seconds when one protesterwas caught beneath it, finally driving away from the furious crowd.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in held Kashmir, a disputed Himalayanterritory divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan butclaimed by both in its entirety.
In recent years, the Indian-held region has seen renewed suspected militantattacks and repeated public protests against Indian rule.
Separatists have been fighting Indian control since 1989, demanding thatthe territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independentcountry.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the separatist groups, acharge Pakistan denies.
Most Kashmiris support the separatists’ cause while also participating incivilian street protests against Indian control.
Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuingIndian military crackdown.