Key towns under curfew in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, INDIA // Authorities brought new areas under curfew in the Indian portion of Kashmir today to control the worst street violence in a year, triggered by the killing of 11 people allegedly by government forces over the past two weeks. Thousands of government forces patrolled the troubled town of Sopore where the curfew continued for a sixth straight day. With tension mounting in the region, authorities put most parts in Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, and the key towns of Anantnag and Baramulla under curfew today.

Omar Abdullah, the state's top elected official, asked people to stay indoors. "They should not violate curfew and not engage security forces." Shops, businesses, schools and government offices were shut in the region. Authorities postponed college examinations and even blocked text messages on cell phones. No fresh violence was reported today, a day after police and paramilitary troops fired on thousands of anti-India protesters, killing at least three people in Anantnag, a town 55 kilometres south of Srinagar, police said.

Local residents said that one of the dead, Ishtiyaq Ahmed Khanday, 15, was not part of any protests and was killed in the compound of his home. Faced with more than two weeks of increasingly strident protests in the divided Himalayan region, government forces have been accused of killing a total of 11 people in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Protesters demanding independence have attacked troops with rocks and sticks, and government forces have responded by launching tear gas, charging with batons and opening fire.

Militants have fought in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan. While anti-India demonstrations are frequent in the region, the latest round of street protests was triggered by a police investigation earlier this month that found Indian army soldiers had killed three Kashmiri civilians in May. The investigation said the soldiers staged a gunfight to claim the dead were militants. The army responded by suspending two officers.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both. Separatist politicians and armed militants reject Indian sovereignty in Kashmir, and want to carve out a separate homeland or merge the Himalayan region into Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict since 1989. * AP