Army takes to streets of Kashmir capital

India sent its army on to the streets of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, on Wednesday to enforce a strict curfew, after four civilians were killed in violent clashes between police and angry mobs of youths.

The Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, which is a popular summer holiday spot for India’s affluent middle class, has been rocked by increasingly violent protests since June 14, when a 17-year-old boy was killed, apparently by a stray bullet fired by security forces

In the cycle of angry protests and harsh crackdowns that have followed, another 14 civilians, including many teenagers, have been killed. Each fresh killing has fuelled renewed anger and protests, which have often turned violent and led to more casualties.

Authorities imposed a curfew across Kashmir for several days last week in what Omar Abdullah, the chief minister, described as a necessary measure to “stop this cycle of violence”.

But on Tuesday, protests erupted again and soon turned violent after the retrieval of the body of a teenage boy who locals said had drowned while fleeing police after a protest Monday night.

Indian television showed images of security forces firing straight into mobs of yelling, stone-pelting youth, and also of crowds of angry women marching through the streets.

The renewed bloodshed in Kashmir come as the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan prepare to meet next week in an tenuous effort to revive the peace process, which was suspended after the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008.

Analysts have expressed concern that the renewed violence could complicate efforts to renew the tentative dialogue. P. Chidambaram, India’s interior minister, last week accused Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Pakistan-based militant group, of fomenting the unrest. An exchange of fire across a usually quiet section of the Kashmir border reported on Wednesday by the armies of each side resulted in the death of two Indian troops and the wounding of one Pakistani soldier and several villagers, Reuters reported.

Kashmiri human rights activists say they believe the protests are an eruption of spontaneous anger at the oppressive presence of the security forces and their lack of accountability for human rights violations, including civilian deaths. In Pakistan on Tuesday, militant groups held anti-India protests.

“I want to assure my brothers in Indian-occupied Kashmir that we will continue to support you until we liberate every inch of our motherland from Indian subjugation,” Syed Salahuddin, a top commander of militant group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, told protesters.

Kashmir is at the centre of a decades-old dispute between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars over the picturesque Himalayan province.

Throughout the 1990s, Kashmir was rocked by a violent, Pakistan-backed separatist insurgency, but militant violence has declined sharply over the last decade. However, India’s huge military presence remains a source of major friction with the local population, which bristles at the frequent curfews, checkpoints and disruptions.

Kashmiris have been clamouring for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which they say allows security forces to act with impunity.