Anger in Kashmir as troops kill teen rebels

Thousands of mourners thronged the funeral yesterday of a 14-year-old rebel shot dead by troops in Jammu and Kashmir, the youngestever fighter killed in the decadeslong insurgency, police said.

Mudasir Ahmad Parrey was killed alongside two other militants, one a 17-year-old, outside Srinagar on Sunday.

Parrey, a ninth-grade student, went missing in August before emerging in a photograph on social media brandishing an automatic assault rifle and military knife. The young militants’ deaths sparked angry protests in the state.

A funeral procession yesterday for the slain teenagers turned violent as mourners clashed with police, who used tear gas to drive them back.

At 14, police said he was the youngest known fighter to have died in the insurgency.

He was killed in an 18-hour siege by troops in Hajin, outside Srinagar. The home Parrey and the two other militants were holed up in was blasted to rubble.

“He had never failed in school exams,” mourned his father Rashid.

The teenager also sometimes worked as a labourer to help out with family expenses, he added.

Many Kashmiris sympathise with the rebels fighting half a million troops stationed in the heavily-militarised state.

Civilians often pelt soldiers with stones while they are conducting search operations for militants, and funerals for slain fighters draw thousands of mourners and see shops closed.

New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of stoking anti-India sentiment and funding militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba fighting in Kashmir.

Police believe the teenagers killed in Sunday’s fighting joined the militant group around August.