OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: Indian police said “leftover explosives” wereresponsible for a blast in occupied Kashmir that killed at least fivecivilians Sunday as they protested against government forces shooting deadthree alleged separatists.
Protesters had surged the site of a shootout in southern Kulgam town,chanting slogans against Indian rule and hurling rocks at troops as theyfired at unidentified gunmen.
Three alleged separatists were shot dead in the exchange but a subsequentexplosion at the scene killed five demonstrators, said inspector-general ofpolice Swayam Prakash Pani.
“Protestors ignored warnings and soon overwhelmed the site, where five diedafter being hit when leftover explosives went off,” he told AFP.
At least 30 other civilians were wounded in clashes with police, anotherofficer and witnesses at the scene said.
Mobile telephone services were suspended in the area as protests spread.
Many civilians in occupied Kashmir support separatists who have beenfighting for decades for independence or for a merger with Pakistan, whichlike India also claims the divided Himalayan territory in full.
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India has some 500,000 troops deployed in occupied Kashmir.
Popular unrest has been rising since 2016 when a charismatic youngseparatist leader was shot dead by Indian forces. More than 100 civiliansdied in subsequent weeks of protest.
A civilian was among four people killed last week in a shootout in theheart of occupied Srinagar, the main city in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the decades of fightingacross Indian Kashmir.
This year at least 186 separatists, 80 civilians and 75 government forcespersonnel have died in clashes across the Indian controlled part of theterritory. – APP/AFP