Protests erupt in Kashmir after rebel’s brother killed

AFP Srinagar

Hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday after the brother of a rebel leader was killed by government forces. While authorities said Khalid Wani was shot dead in a gun battle with troops in a forest, his father said the 24-year-old had been tortured to death. Military spokesman N N Joshi said Wani was killed on Monday in Buchoo, a forested area around 50km south of the main city of Srinagar, during a search operation by the army. “The terrorists were effectively engaged and one terrorist was eliminated,” Joshi said in a statement, adding that two assault rifles and “war-like stores” were recovered from the site. Police said that a second body had been found yesterday near the scene of the “firefight”, identified as that of another local resident whom they claim had recently become a militant. Police sources said Wani had gone to meet his brother Burhan, who is a top commander of the region’s largest rebel group, the Hizb-ul Mijahideen. However residents of the brothers’ hometown of Tral claimed that Khalid Wani had been killed in a “fake encounter” as they took to the streets in protest, hurling rocks at security forces and chanting “we want freedom.” Police fired tear smoke and live bullets in the air to disperse the protesters, according to witnesses. At least a dozen people were injured in the clashes, said a police officer at the scene who declined to be named. Speaking to reporters, Wani’s father rejected the police and army’s version of events, saying there were no gunshot wounds on his son’s body. “His head was smashed and teeth broken. There was no bullet injury on his body. He was tortured to death,” Muzaffar Wani told reporters. Several rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces in the state since 1989 which has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians. India maintains the presence of hundreds of thousands of troops, protected by emergency military impunity laws, in the state to fight the insurgency which has been largely suppressed. Violence has declined steadily in the state during the last decade but armed encounters between rebels and government forces occur regularly.