Funeral of slain teen turns violent in volatile Indian Kashmir

Police and paramilitary troops have clashed with thousands of people, who had turned out for the funeral of a teenage boy killed during pro-independence protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police officer said the scuffles broke out at Martyr's Graveyard in Srinagar on Saturday.

Policemen and paramilitary forces fired tear gas, pellets and live rounds into the air to disperse the funeral procession of 12-year-old Junaid Ahmed, who according to witnesses, was sprayed with pellets in the lawn outside his home on Friday, the officer said.

"We are taking all possible measures so that the protests don't spread to other areas," the officer said, referring to the curfew imposed in several parts of Srinagar.

Saturday’s funeral procession saw angry mourners chanting slogans such as, "We want freedom," and "Go India, go back,” with a number of young men hurling rocks at the government troops.

Some tear gas shells fired by police landed near the mourners, who were carrying Ahmed’s body draped in a Pakistani flag with pro-independence slogans written on it.

The boy, who was hit by shotgun pellets all over his body, succumbed to his wounds at hospital. Police claimed that the young student was part of Friday’s confrontation between demonstrators and government forces. The scuffles left more than 50 people injured.

Additionally on Friday, suspected rebels fired at a police post in Shopian Hill district, killing an officer and injuring three others.

According to a police statement, the assailants tried to snatch weapons from a police bunker.

Indian-controlled Kashmir has witnessed violence since July, when Burhan Wani, a top figure in the pro-independence Hizb-ul-Mujahideen group, was killed in a shootout with Indian troops in Kokernag area.

Since then, at least 90 people, most of them young protesters, have been killed and more than 12,000 wounded in the Kashmir clashes. Thousands more have also been arrested.

Schools, shops and most banks have remained shut while authorities have suspended mobile phone Internet services in the troubled region.

Kashmir lies at the heart of a bitter territorial dispute since India and Pakistan became independent in 1947.

New Delhi and Islamabad both claim the Himalayan region in full, but rule parts of it.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir. The two countries agreed to a ceasefire in the disputed territory on November 26, 2003, and launched a peace process the following year. Since then, there have been sporadic clashes, with the two sides trading accusations of violating the ceasefire along their de facto border dividing the disputed region.

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