Indian army shoots three protesters dead in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, July 07 (AFP): Troops shot dead three stone-throwing protesters including a 16-year-old girl in Indian-administered Kashmir on Saturday.

The tensions rose ahead of the anniversary of the death of a popular rebel commander.

Witnesses said soldiers opened fire in the southern Kashmiri district of Kulgam after hundreds of people angry at an army search operation for suspected militants gathered to protest, some hurling objects.

A government doctor told that the dead included two men aged 20 and 22 years and a 16-year-old girl.

"The three had bullet injuries and succumbed soon after their arrival at the hospital," the doctor at a sub-district hospital in Kulgam said on condition of anonymity.

Police chief SP Vaid confirmed the deaths to the news agency but did not reveal any more details.

The killings come on the eve of the second anniversary of the death of Burhan Wani, a charismatic 22-year-old rebel killed by government forces two years ago on July 8.

Separatist leaders have called for a shutdown on Sunday to commemorate the slain militant.

Wani's killing has triggered a sustained wave of violent protests that have so far claimed the lives of at least 100 civilians, with last year the deadliest in the region for the past decade.

Thousands of others were injured by shotgun pellets fired by the Indian army.

Kashmir has been divided since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 but both New Delhi and Islamabad claim the former Himalayan kingdom in full.