Kashmir valley closed down yesterday in the latest protest over the alleged rape and murder of two Muslim women that has triggered massive anti-India demonstrations in the disputed Himalayan region.
Shops and businesses were shut and most streets deserted except for security patrols in Srinagar, the summer capital.
Anti-India protests have raged in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley since the bodies of two Muslim women were found on May 29 in Shopian town, 60km south of Srinagar.
PHOTO: AFP
Residents say the two women, aged 17 and 22, were abducted, raped and killed by security forces.
Authorities say medical tests confirmed the rape of the women and have ordered an investigation.
Two protesters have died and hundreds been injured in clashes with the police. Authorities yesterday deployed thousands of police across the valley, anticipating further clashes.
“The Shopian incident is an attack on our honor and dignity. We won’t give up our fight till the perpetrators of the crime are punished,” said the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, a separatist alliance, in a statement yesterday.
Indian security forces fighting separatist militants in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, have been accused in the past of human rights violations, including rape and extrajudicial killings.
Authorities deny any systematic violations and say all reports are investigated and the guilty punished.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS