Kashmiris protest shootings by India

SRINAGAR, India — Tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets more than a dozen times in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday, hurling rocks and shouting anti-India slogans after soldiers killed four civilians and two suspected militants. Government forces responded with tear gas.

The overnight shooting at a military checkpoint threatened to spark even more unrest in a region that in recent years has seen renewed rebel attacks and repeated public protests against Indian rule.

The authorities had put parts of the highly militarized region under lockdown after the Sunday night shooting, deploying soldiers and riot police, shutting schools and Internet service, and ordering people off the streets in some places in an attempt to derail protests.

But widespread anger, along with funerals for the six victims and separatist calls for a business shutdown, helped ignite angry demonstrations.

Many protests centered around the town of Shopian, where the shooting occurred, a region of mountain forests and apple orchards.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the protests.

The trouble began late Sunday night, when officials say a car refused to stop at a checkpoint outside a Shopian military base and militants inside fired at the soldiers.

Indian army spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia said a rebel and three civilians were killed when soldiers fired back. A fourth civilian’s body was recovered from a nearby car, officials said, and the body of another rebel was found a few miles away. Authorities said he was injured in the shooting and died later.

Kalia called the slain civilians “over-ground workers,” a term that Indian security forces use for people who give support to the rebels.

Police, though, called them simply “young men” and said they were investigating the incident. Kashmir’s top elected official, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, termed them “civilians.” In a tweet, Mufti said she was “deeply distressed by more deaths of civilians caught in the crossfire in Shopian.”

But across the region, most people believed all were killed in cold blood. The soldiers “shoot even at shadows, and they’re employing every tactic to suppress people,” said Bashir Ahmed, a Shopian resident.