SRINAGAR: Two people were killed on Saturday when their truck overturned in Indian-held Kashmir after anti-India protesters stoned it, police said on the first day of US President Barack Obama’s tour of the country.
Four people have now been killed in Kashmir by stone pelters since protests against Indian-rule started in early June. A police statement said that the incident occurred in southern Shopian district on Saturday when “miscreants were enforcing a strike and resorting to stone pelting on civilian vehicles”.
Saturday was the first day of a three-day strike called by hardline separatists to protest against Indian rule in IHK. The strike closed down most of the shops, schools and businesses across the valley, but some civilian vehicles continued to use the roads in all major towns. The strike coincided with the beginning of Obama’s tour of India. Hardliners had also called for fresh anti-India protests during Obama’s visit.
The region has been hit by rolling protests since June 11 when a 17-year-old student was killed by a police tear gas shell. Since then, security forces have been accused of killing a total of 111 people, mostly teenagers and students. But for the past few weeks, the region has been mostly calm, attributed partly to a series of measures by the government designed to strangle the protests and defuse anger in the Himalayan region.
