India deployed soldiers on the streets of protest-hit occupied Kashmir on Friday to restore order, witnesses said, as two more pro-independence demonstrators were shot dead by occupation forces. Occupation troops were spotted on a key road in the main city of occupied Srinagar that leads to the high-security airport, an AFP reporter said, while residents also reported seeing soldiers in central Budgam and northern Baramulla villages.
The army was last mobilised to assist the police and occupation forces in July, and the latest deployment is likely to further anger locals and Kashmiris who resent any moves heightening the sense of occupation in the disputed Himalayan region. "All repressive measures are being used to quell and crush the resistance movement and intimidate people for daring to raise their voice," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a senior and leading cleric, told AFP.
The occupation army declined to comment on the deployment when contacted by AFP, but it was believed to be part of a new strategy drafted by police, paramilitary and army occupation forces on Wednesday to restore order. A total of 96 people have died since the protests erupted in June, according to an AFP tally, with 17 killed on Monday in the worst violence in years. Police said at least two people had been killed and 19 injured on Friday after police opened fire in four places as crowds defied a curfew to pelt occupation forces with stones.
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