Paramilitary soldiers open fire on stone-throwing protesters, killing 1 in Indian Kashmir

Soldiers fire on Kashmiri protesters; 1 killed

SRINAGAR, India — Indian troops fired on hundreds of demonstrators who tried to torch a paramilitary bunker in Kashmir on Sunday, killing one person and wounding at least five, police said.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state, in an angry protest against the death of a 25-year-old who died a day earlier after being beaten by soldiers in a demonstration last week.

The protesters threw rocks at security forces and tried to set a bunker belonging to paramilitary soldiers on fire, according to footage from AP Television News. A spokesman for the troops said they then fired in self-defense.

“We exercised maximum restraint. Our soldiers opened fire only in self-defense after the protesters tried to torch the bunker,” said Prabhakar Tripathi, CRPF spokesman.

One person was killed and at least five wounded, said Farooq Ahmed, a top police officer.

The demonstration swelled after the shots were fired, when hundreds more people poured into the streets, chanting “We want freedom” and “Indian forces leave Kashmir.”

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both. Rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for the Himalayan region’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan.

More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.