06 September 2016•Update: 06 September 2016
By Zahid Rafiq
SRINAGAR, Indian-held Kashmir
A Kashmiri civilian was killed Tuesday as mass pro-independence protests against Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir valley continued for a 60th day.
A senior doctor at the Anantnag district hospital, who cannot be named because of a ban on doctors speaking to media, told Anadolu Agency that Naseer Ahmad Mir, 21, was already dead when brought to the hospital after soldiers opened fire on protesters in a south Kashmir village.
"We had ninety wounded people from Seer Hamdan [village] today, there was not even time to write down names. That is what we are doing here everyday, watching young people suffer and die," the doctor said.
According to various hospitals, 76 civilian protestors have been killed and over 9,000 wounded since the beginning of the current unrest on July 8, when a popular militant commander was killed by Indian forces.
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
The two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.
Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
More than 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed so far in the violence, most of them by Indian forces. India maintains over half a million soldiers in IHK.
