Curfew fails to quell violence in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India — Violence continued to rage across Indian Kashmir on Saturday with two people shot dead and five wounded after police in two towns opened fire on protesters who attacked their camps and pelted them with rocks.

An indefinite curfew was ordered a day after four people were killed and another 80 wounded as government forces fired on thousands of protesters across the troubled region.

The recent tension in the Himalayan region — divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both — is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi's rule sparked an armed conflict.

The mostly Muslim region, where resistance to rule by predominantly Hindu India is strong, has spent most of the past six weeks under curfew.

Six deaths in two days raised the number of people killed in clashes to 23 in the past six weeks.

Thousands defied the curfew Saturday to protest, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. At least 10 people were wounded, he said.

Demonstrators attacked a police camp in Naidkhai, a village 25 miles north of the main city Srinagar, and officers responded with gunfire, killing one and wounding three, the officer said.

Another person was killed and two were wounded when government forces fired on hundreds of rock-throwing protesters in Baramulla, a town north of Srinagar, the police officer said.