Indian tourist is killed in Kashmir clashes

AN Indian tourist has been killed during a protest in Kashmir as the disputed region shut down for a third day over the killings of civilians and rebels during weekend gun battles and anti-india protests.

Elsewhere, a teenage boy who was shot by Indian troops on Sunday died in hospital, triggering protests and clashes in his southern Kashmir village.

The tourist, from India’s Tamil Nadu state, was injured when a stone thrown at his taxi broke the window and hit his head as he and his parents were on their way back from a resort near western Narbal village, local police official Nazir Ahmed said.

The 22-year-old tourist was transferred to a hospital in the region’s main city of Srinagar, where he died overnight, police said.

Separatists challenging India’s sovereignty over Kashmir and pro-india Kashmiri politicians condemned his death. The region’s top elected official, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, called it “heartbreaking”. Top separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said he was deeply saddened.

During the past few years, authorities have campaigned to attract visitors to the region after a decades-long antiindia insurgency.

However, repeated gunfights, anti-india protests, travel warnings by Western governments and media coverage of the violence have hit tourism.

Shops, schools and businesses were shut again yesterday in protest over the killings of eight rebels and six civilians during antiIndia protests and fighting with government forces over the weekend.

India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim it in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989, demanding Indiancontrolled Kashmir be made part of Pakistan or become independent.