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Four Killed, 16 Injured As Indian Troops Fire On Kashmir Protest
SRINAGAR, India, Feb 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Indian troops opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the troubled Kashmir region Thursday killing at least four people and injuring 16 others, police and witnesses said.
More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered at Higam, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the city of Srinagar, to demand a formal investigation into the alleged killing of a Muslim man in police custody on Wednesday.
"Women and children blocked the road chanting pro-freedom and pro-Islamic slogans, and demanded an investigation and the return of the dead body," said a witness.
Indian troops then opened fire on the crowd, which had been directing abuse at the soldiers, said witnesses.
Police said four people, two men and two women, died and 16 others were injured. Four seriously injured people were taken to the main hospital in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar.
A spokesman for the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a party working for Kashmiri independence, said the man who died in police custody was not linked to the conflict in the region.
The man was named as Jaleel Ahmed Shah. His sister was reported to be among those injured in the shooting.
The JKLF also said that four of its leaders who attended the demonstration were missing.
Meanwhile 20 people, including the daughter of a former Indian Home minister, were arrested Thursday in Kashmir when they took to the streets to protest killings in police custody.
Mehbooba Mufti, former legislator and daughter of Mufti Syed, and around 100 supporters marched through the fashionable Residency Road in Srinagar shouting slogans and waving placards.
Additionally, a powerful Kashmiri group Thursday said Islamic mujahideen fighters had killed scores of Indian soldiers and lost 12 of their own men in clashes over the past several days in Kashmir.
The clashes, in Rajouri and Poonch districts, erupted after the Indian army assisted by helicopters launched operations there a week ago to flush out Kashmiri opposition, the Hizbul Mujahideen said.
"Encounters are continuing and the Indian army is paying a heavy price. Scores of their men have been killed while a dozen mujahideen have also embraced martyrdom," a Hizbul statement said.
"The operations provide yet another evidence that India's so-called unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir is only a propaganda ploy to mislead the world," Hizbul leader Syed Salahuddin said in the statement.
In response to the Hizbul's assertions, the Indian army denied claims that it had suffered heavy casualties over the past few days.
An army spokesman in New Delhi said the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen "had simply spun tales" about major battles in Kashmir's Rajouri and Poonch districts.
He also denied that India had violated its unilateral ceasefire in the region.
"We are following the ceasefire in toto. The army and the paramilitary have only retaliated when they have been attacked. We are not opening unprovoked fire," the army spokesman said.
"We may have suffered some casualties in the last three weeks, but nothing out of the ordinary. Through this disinformation campaign, the Hizbul is trying to project images of a big battle, high Indian casualties and a victory for itself."
India announced a unilateral ceasefire in November and extended it twice up to February 26th in a bid to start a peace process in the strife-torn Muslim majority Himalayan state, divided between Islamabad and New Delhi.
Pakistan responded with a promise of restraint along the dividing Line of Control in Kashmir and invited a delegation of Kashmiri separatist leaders from the Indian zone to visit Islamabad for talks.
But a proposed visit from the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference alliance was put in limbo, as New Delhi did not issue travel documents amid rejection of the ceasefire and alleged continued attacks by Kashmiri groups.
Around 34,000 people have died in Indian-held Kashmir since the conflict was re-launched in the region in 1989.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided into Indian and Pakistani zones. Both sides claim the entire area.
Rival claims to the Himalayan territory have caused two of the three wars between Pakistan and India since their independence in 1947.
Pakistan pledges moral and diplomatic support for what it calls a legitimate indigenous Kashmiri self-determination struggle, but it denies Indian charges of training and arming the militants.
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