Protests at Kashmir funeral of 3 men allegedly killed by Indian army

Thousands protest killings in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India — Police fired warning shots into the air and used tear gas Saturday to disperse thousands of villagers in Indian-controlled Kashmir protesting the killing of three men allegedly by the Indian army.

The army said it killed three rebels in a gunbattle April 30 after the insurgents had crossed into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani side in Machil, an area near the highly militarized cease-fire line between the rival nations.

However, villagers and relatives of three Kashmiri men who had gone missing from Nadihal village three days before the purported gunbattle demanded a probe, fearing the bodies could be those of the missing men.

Police on Friday exhumed the bodies and handed them over to their relatives after identification.

“They were innocent citizens killed in a fake gunbattle,” said Farooq Ahmed, a top police officer. Ahmed said three people including an army solider have been arrested so far. “Law will takes its own course.”

On Saturday, shortly before the burial of the three men, thousands of angry villagers chanting “We want freedom” and “Prosecute the killers,” tried to march to the main highway in Nadihal village.

Police fired warning shots and used tear gas to stop the protesters, said a local police officer on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy. At least eight protesters were injured, he said.

Anti-Indian sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, where government forces are often accused of killing and torturing people they suspect to be tied to militants as well as for winning rewards and promotions. Authorities routinely investigate such allegations, but rarely prosecute those involved.

Rights groups in the past have often dismissed government probes as a public relations tool aimed at pacifying public anger.

Separatists have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the uprising and subsequent Indian crackdown.