Rebels stage Kashmir attacks as Modi gives annual address

10 police paramilitaries injured in Independence Day shooting

SRINAGAR: Gunmen shot and injured 10 police paramilitaries Monday who were trying to impose a curfew in the main city of Kashmir during Indian Independence Day, security sources said.

Three of those who were wounded are in a serious condition, according to a spokesperson for the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), after two separate attacks in the centre of Srinagar where security forces had been on high alert.



Authorities have imposed a curfew in large parts of Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state, since July 9 during an upsurge in violence sparked by the killing of a top militant commander.

CRPF spokesperson Bhuvesh Chaudhary said that seven paramilitaries had been injured in the first attack in the Nowhatta neighbourhood and three others were injured shortly afterwards in another shooting close by.

Another security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that intermittent firing was still being heard in the neighbourhood and it was not yet clear how many gunmen had been involved.

Indian-administered Kashmir has been under a curfew since protests broke out over the death last month of the popular young rebel leader Burhan Wani in a gunfight with security forces.



More than 50 civilians have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands more injured in the worst violence to hit the Himalayan region since 2010.

It is the epicentre of a separatist insurgency, with several rebel groups fighting Indian troops and police as they seek either independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Although Modi made no direct reference to the situation in Kashmir in his annual Independence Day speech on Monday he made a general appeal for youths to steer clear of violence.

"I want to tell these youths that this country will never tolerate terrorism, this country will never tolerate terrorists and this country will never bow down to terrorists," he said.



Indian firing kills two more Kashmiris

In a fresh act of state terrorism, Indian troops killed two Kashmiris in Indian-held Kashmir's Baramulla district, Radio Pakistan reported.

Indian troops killed the youth during violent military operation in Uri area of the district.