Islamabad/Srinagar - Eleven Kashmiris were martyred and over 200 injured in fresh acts of state-sponsored terrorism by Indian security forces in Occupied Kashmir on Saturday. Three freedom-fighters were also killed in a gunbattle with occupation forces.
Eleven civilians were massacred when Indian security forces opened fire at people protesting the killing of three freedom-fighters in a gunbattle in Held Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
A senior police officer, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said large numbers of local people gathered at the site of the gunbattle, leading to clashes between them and Indian security forces in which 11 people were killed and about 200 injured.
Residents told Al Jazeera that villagers marched towards the site of the gunfight and Indian forces "fired live ammunition at them". "There is mayhem. The Indian soldiers fired bullets at unarmed civilians without a second thought," said Ruby Hamid, a resident of Pulwama.
The dead from Saturday's violence included 14-year-old Aqib Ahmad, who lived in the village of Prichoo. "He left with the others towards the site of the gunfight in the morning," one of his family members recalled.
"At 11:00 am, we heard he had been shot. At the hospital, we found he was targeted in the head. This was a massacre of people. Why didn't they shoot them in the leg?"
Dr Abdul Rasheed Para of the district hospital in Pulwama described Saturday's clashes as "disastrous". "We have received six dead bodies since the morning. All of them had firearm injuries in the head, abdomen, and neck," he told Al Jazeera.
"Most of them were in the age group between 18 and 23 years. They were all young. Twenty-five people were treated with different injuries, some of them had bullet injuries and some were hit with pellets."
Widespread protests have broken out in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir over the bloodbath in Pulwama. A curfew was imposed in Pulwama town and surrounding areas. Shops and businesses pulled down their shutters and Indian troops rushed to the streets to prevent further demonstrations.
Authorities have suspended train services in the Kashmir Valley and shut down mobile internet services to try and prevent the unrest from spreading.
Hundreds of students of various departments of Kashmir University assembled at Allama Iqbal Library lawns and later marched through varsity campus chanting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. They termed the civilian killings in Pulwama “a massacre, a bloodbath”. The students also held funeral prayers in absentia for the martyred youth.
The students of Amar Singh College in Srinagar also held protests and clashed with the Indian forces’ personnel.
Meanwhile, massive clashes broke out between students and the Indian forces’ personnel in Sopore town after the students of Sopore Degree College staged protests against the killings.
Hurriyat Conference called for a three-day strike and protests across Occupied Kashmir. "Bullets and pellets rain!" APHC Chairman Mirwaiz Omar tweeted, adding that their supporters would march towards the main army cantonment in Srinagar on Monday so that the Indian government can "kill all of us at one time rather than killing us daily".
"The Indian forces are armed with laws that protect them. They are trigger happy forces. They fear no prosecution, no accountability. They are here to kill people, especially youth," Mirwaiz told Al Jazeera. "The youth have been shot in the head, in the neck, the abdomen. It was shoot-to-kill, not to disperse them,"
"No one is talking about it. The world is silent. This is a complete colonial approach to suppress people."
Senior APHC leader Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai and other Hurriyat leaders and organisations condemned the bloodbath by Indian troops terming it genocide of Kashmiri Muslims by the Indian government and its stooges in the territory.
Sehrai in a statement issued in Srinagar said “This new definition of Indian so-called democracy where unarmed innocent civilians pumped with bullets and pellets should be a harsh slap on the face of those who still think Kashmir to be the integral part of India.”
Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister of the region, who served in coalition with India's ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said that "no country can win a war by killing its own people".
"How long are we going to shoulder the coffins of our youngsters? So many civilians killed today post encounter in Pulwama. I strongly condemn these killings, and once again appeal for efforts, to stop this bloodbath," she tweeted.
PAKISTAN STRONGLY CONDEMNS Indian brutalities
Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned the abhorrent and ruthless killing of 14 innocent Kashmiris, including the father of a three-month-old baby by direct Indian firing on protesters in Pulwama area of Occupied Kashmir.
The Indian firing also left another 200 people injured, the Foreign Office spokesperson said in his tweet on social media. “From blinding 18 month baby #hiba, to murdering 14 year old Kashmiri boys, #India makes a mockery of human rights everyday in IOK #Kashmirbleeds,” the spokesperson tweeted.
He said the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry as recommended by Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was imperative for bringing an immediate halt to Indian state-sponsored terrorism and human right abuses in IOK. A senior police official told Al Jazeera that an Indian soldier also succumbed to his injuries after the clashes in Sirnoo village.
INDIA VIOLATES LOC CEASEFIRE
Indian forces violated ceasefire and opened fire at Khuiratta Sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Kashmir on Saturday.
Indian forces targeted civilian settlements at LoC. No injury was reported in the firing but it forced the people to stay indoors. Retaliated fire from Pakistani forces silensed the guns of Indian forces.