Several injured in clashes in Indian Kashmir

The clash took place when government forces thwarted a procession to a southern town reeling under curfew.

SRINAGAR: Several people, including an AFP photographer, were injured Friday in Indian administered Kashmir when government forces thwarted a procession to a southern town reeling under curfew, police and witnesses said.

A top leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had called for a mass march to Shopian, around 45 kilometres from the state capital Srinagar, to protest the 12-day curfew in the town.

Police and paramilitaries fired tear gas and pellet guns to prevent hundreds of rock throwing protestors in the Nowhatta area of the old town Srinagar from marching ahead.

"Two persons were injured including one with pellets," Kashmir's police chief Abdul Gani Mir told AFP.

Eyewitness however said several were injured by pellet guns fired by the police.

The injured included AFP photographer Tauseef Mustafa and a cameraman working for Iran's Press TV, both of whom were hit on the head by rocks. Both needed stitches but were not seriously injured.

Authorities have imposed a round-the-clock curfew in Shopian since September 8, a day after Indian paramilitary forces killed four men in the town.

The region has been tense since the latest killings, the victims of which were first described by the authorities as rebels but three of them were later identified as local students.

The fourth man is yet to be identified and the government has instituted an enquiry into the incident.