Teenage protestor shot dead in Indian Kashmir

A teenager was killed and several others injured when security forces opened fire on a protest in Indian Kashmir.

SRINAGAR: A teenager was killed and several others injured when security forces opened fire Friday on an anti-India protest in Indian Kashmir, police and witnesses said.

The killing came a day after the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan and took the death toll from two months of violent protests in the Muslim-majority region to 52.

The shooting occurred in Trehgam village, in Kupwara district, about 110 kilometres (68 miles) north of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar.

"Hundreds of people came out on the streets after dawn prayers and held a noisy anti-India demonstration," witness Abdul Rashid said, adding that the security forces had opened fire without any provocation.

Police said they had resorted to live rounds only after the demonstrators started pelting them with stones. A 17-year old Muslim boy was shot dead. "Several others are injured, including a 60-year old woman," a police officer said, asking not to be named.

After the incident, a curfew was clamped on Trehgam and other parts of Kupwara district, the officer said. Violent anti-India protests have brought Kashmir's towns and cities to a standstill since a teenage student was killed by a police tear-gas shell on June 11.

The majority of protesters killed since then have been young men and teenagers. Ramadan started on Thursday in Indian Kashmir where an armed insurgency against Indian rule erupted in 1989 and has since claimed tens of thousands of lives.