Police fired on fresh anti-India demonstrations in Kashmir on Saturday, killing three protesters and bringing the number of civilian deaths in an unprecedented wave of unrest to 102. The new deaths came as thousands of Kashmiris poured onto the streets, shouting 'Go back India', and 'We want freedom', as New Delhi grappled to find ways to end the escalating pro-independence demonstrations.
Women and children joined young men staging protests, defying curfews imposed across the mainly Muslim region to contain the spiralling unrest. Police said two men died when security forces fired on stone-hurling protesters blocking a highway north of Occupied Srinagar, the main city of Indian Held Kashmir, where an armed revolt has been under way against Indian rule since 1989. "We were forced to open fire because of the violence," an Indian police spokesman said.
Another young man was killed by Indian police who fired on stone-pelting demonstrators in southern Anantag town, police said. Dozens of demonstrators were also injured in Saturday's clashes and were ferried by anxious friends and family to Held Kashmir's already jammed hospitals where doctors have been working around the clock. The almost daily popular protests are the largest since the armed revolt erupted against New Delhi's rule and have confronted the so-called world's largest democracy with a deep internal crisis.