Fresh protests flared in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday following the overnight killings of two civilians by government forces amid a nearly month-long security lockdown and protest strikes. Police said thousands of people held street protests, chanting slogans demanding end of Indian rule in the disputed region. Demonstrations were held in the Pampore area and a neighborhood in Srinagar, the region's main city. Locals say government forces fired tear gas in Pampore after thousands of people offered funeral prayers for a young man, one of the two civilians killed overnight. He was killed when a police guard escorting a government administrator fired at anti-India protesters who stopped their official car in Pampore late Tuesday. Another young protester was critically wounded and later hospitalized in Srinagar, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The protesters burned the car, the officer said, adding the policeman and the administrator took refuge in a nearby paramilitary camp. The other person killed overnight was a private guard at a bank in Srinagar. His family blamed paramilitary soldiers for fatally shooting him. The initial investigation suggests he died from a pellet wound as he had more than 360 small pellet balls in his body. Anti-India protests erupted shortly after the young man's body was brought to his neighborhood home in Srinagar. Defying the curfew, thousands of men and women carried his body to "Martyr's graveyard" where hundreds of Kashmiri militants and civilians killed during the last 26 years of fighting have been buried. The Indian-held portion of Kashmir has seen its largest protests against Indian rule in recent years after Indian troops killed a rebel commander July 8. At least 50 civilians and a policeman have been killed in protest-related violence. Meanwhile, shops, businesses and schools remained closed for the 26th straight day on Wednesday due to a strike called by separatists demanding an end to Indian rule in the region. Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region, is divided between India and Pakistan, but both claim it in its entirety. Most people in the Indian-held part resent the presence of hundreds of thousands of Indian troops. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the armed uprising against Indian rule and the subsequent Indian military crackdown.
