Authorities order shake-up of top police as protests continue in Indian-controlled Kashmir

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Top police officials removed in Indian Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India — Authorities removed the police and intelligence chiefs in a shake-up of senior police officials in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where more than 60 people have died in months of near-daily streets protests against New Delhi’s rule.

The shake-up came hours after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered officials to use non-lethal measures to control the demonstrations.

However, protests by thousands of Kashmiri Muslims continued across the region after Friday prayers at mosques.

The demonstrators chanted pro-independence slogans and government forces responded with warning shots in the Soura neighborhood of Srinagar, the region’s main city, a police officer said. No injuries were immediately reported.

On Thursday night, large clashes broke out between protesters and government forces at three places in Srinagar and Sopore, a town 35 miles (55 kilometers) to the northwest, the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Government forces fired tear gas and live ammunition, and at least 16 protesters and nine police officers were injured, he said.

Kashmir police chief Farooq Ahmed and intelligence chief K. Rajendra were among a dozen top officers transferred to other positions, the state government said in a statement late Thursday.

Civil rights activists have accused Indian paramilitary soldiers and police of using excessive force. Each death caused by government forces provokes a more severe protest by rock-throwing Kashmiri Muslims.

On Thursday, the prime minister questioned the government’s crowd control tactics.

The protests in Kashmir have to be dealt with using “non-lethal, yet effective and more focused measures,” Singh said at a conference of police chiefs from various Indian states.

The last two months in the volatile Himalayan region have been reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict that has killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both. Separatists reject Indian sovereignty over Kashmir and want to form a separate country or merge with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.