Professor among 10 Kashmiris martyred in IHK

Indian soldiers martyred five Kashmiri freedom fighters including a university teacher in a gunfight Sunday that triggered violent protests in which five civilians were civilians. Thousands took to the streets in occupied south Kashmir to show support for the martyred freedom fighters. Government forces opened fire to break up the protests, director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid said.
Hundreds of people were injured in the protests, according to doctors. Government forces swooped on the village of Badigam, in Shopian district south of occupied Srinagar, following a tip-off about armed freedom fighters holed up inside a house. Freedom fighters refused an offer to surrender, triggering a fierce gun battle, Vaid told AFP.
A special appeal was made to Mohammad Rafi Bhat, a university sociology teacher who only went underground with the freedom fighters on Friday. Kashmir University, where he taught, was ordered closed for two days, according to a university statement. "We brought his father from his home to persuade him to surrender, but he, like all of them, refused," Vaid said, confirming five freedom fighters martyred in the firefight.
A top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a key Kashmiri group, was also among the martyred. As news of the trapped freedom fighters spread, residents took to the streets across occupied southern Kashmir shouting slogans demanding an end to Indian rule, witnesses and a police officer said.
Another police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 30 people were injured in clashes with government forces who fired live ammunition, pellet guns and tear gas. A doctor at a hospital in Shopian said hundreds of injured needed treatment.
"We have reached our full capacity. We have run out of essential medicines, there are no more ambulances," he told AFP. On Saturday, three freedom fighters and a civilian had died during a firefight in occupied Srinagar - the latest in a string of gun battles in recent weeks across the territory. A curfew was ordered in the capital on Sunday and mobile internet services were shut down in much of the Indian-held region.