SRINAGAR, India: Eight people have been injured during weekend protests in Kashmir’s main city with authorities reimposing heavy restrictions to quell unrest in parts of the troubled region, officials said.
Tensions remain high in the disputed Himalayan territory following New Delhi’s decision to strip its semi-autonomous status on August 5.
Authorities were gradually easing a massive movement and communications lockdown imposed two weeks ago.
But clashes in a dozen locations around Srinagar on Saturday saw restrictions brought back in some locations, the Press Trust of India reported, citing unnamed officials.
Authorities have previously denied or played down reports of any violence and stressed that most of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley has been peaceful.
Jammu and Kashmir government spokesman Rohit Kansal told reporters late Saturday that eight people had been injured in the clashes but did not provide further details.
A senior government official told AFP earlier Sunday that more telephone exchanges would return to normal operations ‘by the evening’.
Schools in some areas will reopen today, officials said.
In the Hindu-majority city of Jammu, authorities cut mobile internet services and warned locals not to circulate messages or videos on social media that they said were fake, PTI reported.
The Indian army also confirmed that one soldier was killed when it exchanged ‘heavy’ cross-border fire with Pakistan on Saturday.
Kashmir has been
divided between the two countries since independence, and has been the spark for two major wars and countless clashes between the two nuclear-armed arch-rivals. — AFP