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Kashmir Protests Turn Deadly

   VOA News 13 September 2010
   Kashmiri  protesters burn an effigy of President Barack Obama during a
   protest  in  Srinagar  after  reported Quran desecration in the United
   States

Photo: AP

   Kashmiri  protesters burn an effigy of President Barack Obama during a
   protest  in  Srinagar,  India,  13  Sept.  2010. Indian forces battled
   protesters  in  the disputed territory during demonstrations fueled in
   part by a report of the Quran being desecrated in the United States.

   Clashes  between  security  forces  and protesters in India-controlled
   Kashmir  killed a policeman and at least 13 people on Monday as crowds
   defied a curfew after reports surfaced that Qurans had been desecrated
   in the United States, according to Indian authorities.

   Indian officials said a policemen was among those killed during street
   protests  in  Srinagar.  Police also opened fired when a mob torched a
   Christian-run  school  in  Tangmarg  village,  killing  at  least five
   protesters.
   The  demonstrations  were  fueled,  in  part, by reports on an Iranian
   state-run  channel  that a handful of ultra-conservative Christians in
   the United States had burned or ripped Qurans.  A conservative pastor
   in  Florida  decided to cancel plans to burn Qurans on the anniversary
   of  the  September  11,  2001 terrorist attacks after an outpouring of
   condemnation from national and international officials.Â
   On Sunday, authorities imposed a curfew in Srinagar and other parts of
   the  region,  a  day  after demonstrators burned buildings in protests
   against New Delhi's rule.
   Police  have accused the region's main separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umar
   Farooq, of instigating violence.  Farooq denies the charges.
   Kashmir  has  been  gripped  by nearly three months of protest against
   Indian  rule.   At  least  69  demonstrators  have been killed in the
   unrest,  many  after  security  forces  opened  fire on stone-throwing
   crowds.
   Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the Muslim-majority region.  Groups
   of  Kashmiri  separatists  have fought for decades to win independence
   from India or a merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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