SRINAGAR, India -- Government forces on Saturday fired shotgun pellets and tear gas to disperse hundreds of Shiite Muslims participating in a traditional religious procession in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, injuring scores, eyewitnesses said.
An officer at the police control room in the main city of Srinagar said the mourners on the outskirts of the city violated coronavirus prohibitory orders in place that restrict all religious processions and gatherings across the disputed region.
A duty officer said the police were confirming the number of injured.
Medics at one hospital said they treated at least 30 people, some of them with pellet and tear gas injuries. Many injured were taken to another hospital.
Videos circulating on social media showed police in armed vehicles warning the mourners, who were beating their chests and reciting elegies to mourn the martyrs of Karbala as part of the Muharram ritual, to disperse before firing shotgun pellets and tear gas on them. Some mourners were also seen raising slogans seeking an end to the Indian rule in the disputed region.
"The procession was not just peaceful but was also following health protocols," said Sajjad Hussain, an eyewitness. "They [government forces] unleashed such violence and did not spare even women mourners."
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Police broke up several such processions in the region this week.
Officials said at least 200 people were detained in Srinagar this week for participating in Muharram processions and at least seven people were arrested under an anti-terror law for raising pro-freedom slogans.
Some main Muharram processions have been banned in Indian-controlled Kashmir since an armed insurgency broke out in 1989 demanding the region's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan.
Such measures are particularly galling to Kashmiri Muslims. They have long complained that the government curbs their religious freedom on the pretext of law and order while promoting and patronizing an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Himalayan Amarnath Shrine in Kashmir that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Conditions have worsened in Kashmir since August last year, when New Delhi stripped the region of its statehood and semi-autonomy, setting off widespread anger and economic ruin under a harsh security clampdown.
Meanwhile, seven suspected rebels and an Indian army soldier were killed in two gunbattles in Kashmir in the last 24 hours, officials said Saturday.
Three militants and a soldier died early Saturday after troops and police launched a search operation in a village in southern Pulwama district, said Col. Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesperson. He said troops recovered an assault rifle and two pistols from the slain militants.
On Friday, joint teams of army, paramilitary and police forces cordoned off a village in southern Shopian district following a tip that militants were hiding there, leading to an exchange of fire, police said.
Four militants were killed and another was arrested during the operation, a police statement said. It said troops seized two automatic rifles and three pistols from the site of the fighting.
Since January, government forces have killed 180 militants during counterinsurgency operations, according to the Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a rights group. Based on official figures, data shows that over half of them had joined the rebels less than a year ago, and out of them most had been active for only a few months.
In many of the encounters, the weapons recovered by government forces included only pistols, according to official records. At least 68 government forces and 46 civilians have been killed since January, the rights group said.
The violence comes amid near daily fighting between Pakistani and Indian soldiers along the highly militarized frontier that divides Kashmir between the two rivals. Dozens of civilians and soldiers have died on both sides.
India and Pakistan claim the divided territory of Kashmir in its entirety. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel cause that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies.