Indian occupiers of Kashmir acting like typical occupiers

SRINAGAR, Kashmir -- On June 11, as Tufail Ahmad Mattoo headed home from a tutoring center where he was studying for the medical entrance exam, a tear gas canister fired from close range bashed a hole in his skull. He died almost instantly.

That morning Mr. Mattoo, 17, had been simply a student with a rucksack full of books. By day’s end, he was being called a martyr for the disputed region of Kashmir, and the next day, against his family’s will, he was buried in the Martyrs Graveyard of Srinagar.

Since then at least 15 Kashmiris have died here in the capital and a few other places, most of them young men killed in encounters with Indian security forces or the Kashmiri police. More than 270 security officers have been injured in confrontations with stone-throwing mobs of youths.

The events that have unfolded here over the past month followed a script that has played out every summer for three years.

In 2008 dozens of Kashmiris died and everyday life was paralyzed in disputes over land for Hindu pilgrims. Last year protests flared after two young women were found dead by a stream in the town of Shopian. It appeared that they had been raped and killed by security forces, but Indian investigators concluded they had accidentally drowned.