Armed
police and paramilitary soldiers deployed amid fears that killing of Burhan
Wani could spark violent protests
By Associated
Press
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Kashmiri Muslim girls
(top) look from the windows of their house as an Indian
paramilitary
officer stands guard during restrictions in Srinagar.
Photograph:
Farooq Khan/EPA
|
Indian authorities have imposed an indefinite
curfew in most parts of Kashmir, a day after government forces killed the top
rebel commander in the disputed Himalayan region, officials said, describing it
as a major success against fighters opposed to Indian rule.
Thousands of armed police and paramilitary
soldiers in riot gear fanned out across most towns and villages, including the
summer capital, Srinagar. They laid razor wire and erected steel barricades on
the streets and drove through neighbourhoods warning residents to stay indoors.
Burhan Wani, chief of operations of Indian
Kashmir’s largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed in fighting on
Friday after Indian troops, acting on a tip, cordoned a forested village in the
Kokernag area, said police director general K Rajendra. Two comrades of Wani
were also killed in the gun battle, he said.
In his early 20s, Wani had become the face of
militancy in Kashmir over the last five years. He was a household name and his
video clips and pictures were widely circulated among young people in Kashmir.
Unlike the rebel leaders of the early 1990s, Wani did not cover his face in
videos widely circulated on phones and the internet.
Insp Genl Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani described
the killing as the “biggest success against militants” in recent years. As news
of his death spread, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in several
places in Kashmir, denouncing his death and chanting slogans against Indian
rule.
Indian officials, fearing more violent protests
in the troubled region, suspended an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountain cave
which draws about half a million people each year. Officials also suspended
mobile phone services in southern parts of Kashmir and blocked mobile internet
in the rest of the region to prevent anti-India demonstrators from massing.
Shops, businesses, schools and government
offices were shut following the security lockdown and a general strike called
by anti-India separatists. Authorities also postponed school and college
examinations and suspended rail services.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between
India and Pakistan and claimed in entirety by both. On India’s side, separatist
politicians and rebels reject India’s sovereignty over Kashmir and have been
fighting for independence or merger with Pakistan since 1989. Separatist
leaders asked people to march to southern Tral town for Wani’s funeral on
Saturday.
Rajendra said Wani’s body was handed over to
the family but warned that no one would be allowed to march to Tral. “Only
locals would be allowed to participate in his funeral,” he said. However,
hundreds of protesters came out in several neighbourhoods in southern Kashmir,
chanting: “Go India! Go back,” and: “We want freedom.”
Most citizens in the mostly Muslim region have
long resented the Indian presence, and support rebel demands for independent or
merging with Pakistan. India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them
over control of Kashmir, since they won independence from British colonialists
in 1947. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the
subsequent Indian military crackdown.