INDIAN KASHMIR SHUTSDOWN OVER KILLING OF PROTESTERS
SRINAGAR, India / Jammu and Kashmir, July 19, 2013 (AFP) - Indian Kashmir largely shut down amid heavy security on Friday after troops shot dead four people during a protest over a paramilitary raid on an Islamic school.
Shops, banks, schools and most government offices were closed in towns across the region, after a separatist leader called a three-day strike to protest Thursday's killings.
Srinagar, the main city in the region, was largely deserted after hundreds of police and paramilitary troops were deployed on the streets to halt any demonstrations over the deaths, an AFP reporter on the scene said.
Although authorities have not officially declared a curfew in the troubled Himalayan region, residents said they were not being allowed to go about their business.
“Early in the morning, troops appeared all around my neighbourhood disallowing people from coming out onto the streets,” a resident of the old part of Srinagar, Farhan Ahmed, said by phone.
“It is undeclared curfew,” he said.
Troops fired on protesters on Thursday, after residents of the district of Gool gathered to demonstrate against what
Early in the morning, troops appeared all around my neighbourhood disallowing people from coming out onto the streets
they said was a desecration of the Koran by troops during their search of a madrassa.
They gathered outside a base of the Border Security Forces (BSF) in Gool region, 230 kilometres (143 miles) south of Srinagar.
Residents ac- cused BSF troopers of beating up a caretaker and desecrating a Koran, during a search for militants inside the madrassa in Gool late on Wednesday.
Police officers initially said six protesters were killed in the firing. But inspector-general of police, Rajesh Kumar, clarified on Friday that only four had died.