Thousands protest IHK villager's death

SRINAGAR (AFP/Reuters) - Thousands of villagers in Indian occupied Kashmir held noisy demonstrations on Sunday, accusing the army of killing a married Kashmiri.
Police said Mushtaq Ahmad Mir died in crossfire during a clash between freedom fighters and Indian troops late on Saturday.
But villagers in the southern district of Pulwama said Mir, a father-of-four, was used as a human shield by the soldiers and killed by them when freedom fighters escaped from a siege.
Allah-hu-Akbar, down with Indian forces, the protesters shouted, as they marched with the body of 35-year-old Mushtaq through the streets of Sahdi Marg.
Protesters, who resent Indias rule over the Muslim-majority region, chanted blood for blood and we want freedom.
On Friday evening, a civilian was killed and five wounded when police opened fire on hundreds protesting the setting up of a police camp near a Muslim shrine in the north of Kashmir.
Near daily street protests in the last two years are giving new life to the freedom movement in the disputed Himalayan region, analysts say.
Authorities in the past have denied systematic human rights violations in Kashmir and say they probe all such reports and punish the guilty.