Stop Kashmir clashes, exhausted doctors plead

SRINAGAR: More than 40 days of clashes between protesters and security forces have overwhelmed the main hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir, where patients said they had been beaten by troops in their homes.

House-to-house searches continued yesterday, authorities said, for suspected ringleaders of street protests set off by the killing on July 8 of a popular field commander of a Pakistan-based separatist group.

At least 65 people have been killed and 6 000 injured in the clashes, many wounded by shotgun rounds fired by security forces enforcing a curfew across the Muslim-majority region.

The Indian army has apologised for the death in custody of Shabir Ahmad Mangoo, a college lecturer, while the commander of India’s Northern Army denounced the beatings and ordered an inquiry.

India’s security laws grant wide discretion to the armed forces in “disturbed” areas such as Kashmir.

Doctors were exhausted, with one saying they had performed more eye operations in the past month than they had over the past three years.

Troops have resorted to firing rifles and shotguns to quell stone-throwing protests sparked by the death of Burhan Wani, a field commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen separatist group.

A UN human rights official has expressed “deep regret” at the failure of both India and Pakistan to grant the UN access to the separate parts of Kashmir that each runs, to investigate allegations of serious human rights violations.