SRINAGAR – Three militants were killed in a gunbattle with security forcesin Indian Kashmir on Friday amid widespread protests across the dividedHimalayan region, police said.
Police said all the dead from the shootout in Shopian district weremilitants, but villagers insisted one was a local youth, Jasim Shah.
They said the teenager’s body was found in an orchard near the site of thebattle.
“Jasim was with the militants for the last three days, so he too was amilitant. What else we can call him,” Kashmir police official Munir Khantold AFP.
Dozens of rallies involving hundreds of people were held across Kashmircalling for action over the conflict in the region divided between Indiaand Pakistan.
Holding placards and banners, protesters appealed to the world community toresolve the long pending disputes of Kashmir and also Palestine.
Protesters also gathered in the main Kashmir city of Srinagar and chantedanti-US and anti-Israeli slogans.
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The protests were in response to calls from local separatist leaders toobserve the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as “Palestineand Kashmir Day”.
A statement released by separatist groups renewed demands for”self-determination” in Kashmir, where an uprising against the Indian ruleover the last three decades has left tens of thousands dead, mainlycivilians.
“Oppressive measures cannot deter this nation from pursuing the right toself determination,” they said in the statement.
Kashmiri Muslims pray during the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadanat Kashmir’s grand mosque in Srinagar. -APP/AFP