Srinagar: Police opened fire on a crowd protesting alleged human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday, killing one teenager and wounding a second person, doctors and witnesses said.
The clashes broke out as crowds left Friday prayers at the Jamia mosque in Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, chanting anti-Indian slogans in the street and throwing rocks at the security forces.
Police opened fire, wounding two people, said Reyaz Ahmed, a witness to the fight. One of the victims, a 16-year-old boy, later died, said Dr Abid Hussain of Sher-E-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, who tried to treat him. There was no immediate comment from the police. A crowd of more than 300 gathered at the hospital yesterday night and clashed again with police, breaking hospital windows, Hussain said.
Also yesterday, separatists ordered a strike across Kashmir to protest alleged human rights abuses by Indian troops, forcing shops, businesses and schools to shut down.
Streets in the city were almost deserted during the shutdown called by the region's hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Police and the army in the revolt-torn Himalayan state in the past have been accused of murdering innocent civilians in staged gun battles and passing the victims off as separatist militants to earn rewards and promotions.
Earlier this year, authorities charged over a dozen policemen and soldiers with killing at least two civilians in separate fake gun battles, claiming the civilians were militants.