Students and government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir clashed again, as authorities reopened schools and colleges, just one week after facilities were shut following student-led protests across the disputed territory.
Violence erupted on Monday in the SP Higher Secondary School in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk-the main commercial hub in the Himalayan region, Aljazeera reported.
Government forces used tear gas and water cannon to stop students from marching in the streets.
The students retaliated by hurling stones and breaching barricades set up by police and paramilitary soldiers.
They chanted “Go India, go back” and “We want freedom”. Students and some police personnel sustained injuries in the clashes.
As residents joined the students, the clashes with government forces spilled into the city’s main streets.
Shopkeepers lowered their shutters and bystanders took refuge inside. Troops later fired live ammunition into the air to quell the growing protests.
Violent protests first erupted on April 15, when security forces raided a college in southern Kashmir’s Pulwama District about 30 km south of Srinagar, and assaulted students-at least 54 sustained injuries. Authorities did not say what they were looking for in the raid.
The state government has since been trying to pacify protesters but have failed to do so.
Earlier in the day, the state chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi to discuss the situation in the region that has been on the boil since last year after the killing of a popular rebel commander.
