Curfew re-imposed in Indian Kashmir

Indian security forces re-imposed a strict curfew in Kashmir's main city Friday after the decision to ease restrictions.

SRINAGAR: Indian security forces re-imposed a strict curfew in Kashmir's main city Friday after a decision to ease restrictions, for the first time in five days, led to huge street protests.

The clampdown was briefly lifted on Thursday and thousands took to the streets of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar to denounce the Indian security forces, who are accused of killing Kashmiris during recent protests against Indian rule.

Police vehicles fitted with loud-hailers announced late Thursday the re-imposition of the curfew, warning residents not to venture out of their homes.

A curfew was also clamped on Handwara and Baramulla in the north and on Gandherbal town in the east to thwart a planned separatist march to Srinagar, police said.

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region has been wracked by demonstrations  since June 11 after Indian police and paramilitary forces were accused of killing 15 civilians, many of them teenagers, in less than a month.

As violence spread, local authorities slapped stringent curfews on most of the region, arrested activists and ordered the army onto the streets of Srinagar.

Meanwhile, an Indian army major and two soldiers were injured Friday in an ongoing gunbattle with heavily armed Kashmiris in the Mendhar area of southern Poonch district, an army spokesman said.

They were the latest casualties in a fight that has been raging since late Tuesday. It has also left an army major and two Kashmiris dead and six soldiers injured, including a colonel, who was the commanding officer.

In the same district, the Indian army accused Pakistani troops of violating a ceasefire along the Line of Control.