Indian army makes rare patrols in Kashmir towns, clashes with protester, killing 1

Indian army patrols Kashmir, 1 protester killed

SRINAGAR, India — India sent soldiers into the streets of Kashmir on Friday as part of a new strategy to use the military to crack down on increasingly angry separatist protests in the region. Troops fired on hundreds of Muslim demonstrators, killing one, police said.

Paramilitary forces and police have taken the lead in confronting protesters since widespread protests began in June, but with violence escalating over the past week, the government has searched for a new strategy.

While some Indian officials have called for easing harsh security laws as a goodwill gesture, a top state official said Friday the government would use all its powers to restore order.

“The government has to assert its writ, and appeasement will not work. We’ll take every legal measure to stop the protests now,” said Taj Mohi-u-Din, an influential Cabinet minister in the state government.

At least 95 people have been killed in the recent demonstrations demanding the mostly Muslim region be given independence from Hindu-dominated India or be allowed to merge with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

As part of a new security plan, army troops patrolled several towns and villages across the Himalayan region Friday and guarded the road leading to the airport in Srinagar, the region’s main city.

The use of the army, which normally patrols the frontier with Pakistan and fights against militants, is likely to further anger residents, who have lived under rolling government curfews and separatist strikes for much of the summer.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah came under heavy criticism in July when, in a symbolic show of force, he called in the army to march in Srinagar. That was the first time in nearly two decades that soldiers patrolled in the city, though they did not get into any confrontations with any protesters at that time.

On Friday, hundreds of people defied an indefinite curfew in Churpora, a village near Srinagar, and attacked the soldiers with stones, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The soldiers fired live ammunition, killing one protester and wounding another three, he said.

However, Ghulam Mohammed, a villager, said the army stopped the protesters and opened fire without any provocation.

Another clash with the army took place in the nearby village of Chichilora, where some teenage marchers attacked the soldiers with stones, the police officer said. At least one person was wounded when soldiers shot at the protesters, he said.

Manzoor Ahmed, a local resident, accused the soldiers of forcibly entering some homes, smashing windows and beating up people.

During an overnight clash in the town of Sopore town, paramilitary troops fired at protesters, wounding seven people, police said.

The decision to call in the army came Wednesday at a meeting of top security officials who were concerned by a separatist plan to march on army and paramilitary camps Sept. 21 to demand soldiers leave the region.

On Thursday, Lt. Col. J.S. Brar, an army spokesman in Srinagar, asked people to ignore the call.

The Indian army is ubiquitous in Kashmir — a Himalayan region also claimed by Pakistan and divided by a heavily militarized frontier — but its operations are usually aimed at combating insurgents.

Since 1989, a violent, separatist insurgency and the ensuing crackdown by Indian forces have killed an estimated 68,000 people.

While that rebellion has been largely suppressed, public opposition to Indian rule remains deep.