Curfew extended as violence escalates in Kashmir

Authorities extended a curfew to new areas of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir today, trying to control the worst street violence in a year triggered by accusations that government forces killed 11 people in recent weeks.

Scores of people defied the 24-hour curfew in Srinagar, the largest city, chanting anti-India slogans and throwing rocks at police, who responded with tear gas.

Shops, businesses, schools and government offices were shut in the region. Authorities postponed college examinations and even blocked text messages from mobile phones.

Thousands of police and paramilitary troops patrolled the troubled town of Sopore, where a curfew continued for a sixth day.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both. Muslim militants have fought since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan.

With tension mounting, authorities put most parts of Srinagar and the key towns of Anantnag and Baramulla under curfew today.

Omar Abdullah, the state's top elected official, asked people to stay indoors. "They should not violate curfew and not engage security forces," he said.

But in at least three Srinagar neighbourhoods, people came out into the streets and chanted slogans such as "We want freedom" and "Go India, go back".

Police and paramilitary soldiers immediately fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse the protesters, who threw rocks in retaliation, a police officer said.

There were no reports of injuries today, a day after police and paramilitary troops fired on thousands of anti-India protesters, killing at least three people in Anantnag, a town 35 miles south of Srinagar, police said.

Local residents said one of the dead, Ishtiyaq Ahmed Khanday, 15, was not part of the protests and was killed in the compound of his home.

Faced with more than two weeks of increasingly strident protests in the divided Himalayan region, government forces have been accused of killing a total of 11 people.