2 dead in protests after Kashmiri man hanged in India

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sporadic violence left two people dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir despite a curfew that was extended into a third day Monday, February 11 in the wake of the execution of a Kashmiri man convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India's Parliament, AP said.

Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged in New Delhi early Saturday. Ahead of the execution, authorities ordered people in most of the Indian-held part of the disputed Kashmir region to remain indoors indefinitely in anticipation of anti-India protests.

Despite the curfew, hundreds of angry residents protested against Indian rule on Sunday and clashed with troops at dozens of places in the region.

In Watergam village near the town of Sopore, which was Guru's home, at least four people were wounded, one critically, as police and paramilitary troops fired tear gas shells and bullets to disperse an angry crowd, police said.

One of the injured, 12-year-old Obaid Mushtaq, died early Monday, said Aijaz Mustafa, a medical superintendent at the S.K. Institute of Medical Sciences, a government hospital in Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir. He said another 18-year-old boy was on life support.

Another young man died in Sumbal village in northern Kashmir on Sunday after he jumped into a frigid river while trying to run away from troops who were firing tear gas and using batons to disperse the protesters. Four policemen were injured in separate clashes.

Tens of thousands of security troops were fanned out across the Himalayan region, and metal barricades and razor wire blocked all major roads in the area.

Guru's execution is an extremely sensitive matter in the Himalayan region, where most people believe his trial was not fair. Several rights groups across India, and political groups in Indian Kashmir, also questioned the fairness of his trial.