SRINAGAR, India: Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired shotgun pellets and tear gas at hundreds of mourners Saturday during a funeral march for a man killed when he was run over by a paramilitary vehicle during a protest.
The angry mourners were marching with the man’s body to a graveyard in Srinagar on Saturday when police and soldiers used force to stop them. Police said the marchers were defying a government order that bans assembly of more than four people in the city.
Residents said youths from the funeral regrouped in the winding streets of the city’s downtown and threw stones at troops while chanting slogans in favor of rebels and demanding an end to Indian rule over disputed region. Fierce clashes broke out in several places in the city.
Police later took the custody of the body and allowed only a handful of relatives to take the body for the burial the city’s main martyr’s graveyard where hundreds of rebels and civilians killed since the start of an anti-India armed rebellion are buried.
The man was critically injured Friday and died overnight in a hospital after a paramilitary armored vehicle crushed at least two men during an anti-India protest.
Armed police and paramilitary soldiers laid razor wire and steel barricades at roads and enforced a curfew in old parts of Srinagar to restrict participation in the funeral. Authorities cut mobile Internet services in Srinagar, and reduced connection speeds in other parts of the Kashmir Valley, a common government practice to prevent anti-India demonstrations from being organized.
Friday’s incident was the second of its kind in recent weeks. Last month, a young man was killed when a when a police armored vehicle ran over him during clashes with government forces in Srinagar.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan territory divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan but claimed by both in its entirety. In recent years, the Indian-controlled portion has seen renewed rebel attacks and repeated public protests against Indian rule.
Residents said the armored vehicle in Friday’s incident drove wildly into a crowd of anti-India protesters, slamming into a half-dozen people and crushing at least two men beneath its wheels, injuring them critically.
An Associated Press photographer captured the horror in a series of photographs of the other injured man, who doctors say is still in critical condition.
Indian officials blamed the protesters and said the crowd was trying to drag the soldiers from their vehicle. Police, however, said the incident was a mistake by the nervous driver.
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Police fire on funeral of Kashmir man killed by soldiers
Police fire on funeral of Kashmir man killed by soldiers
- The man was critically injured and died overnight in a hospital after a paramilitary armored vehicle crushed at least two men during an anti-India protest
- Police said the incident was a mistake by the nervous driver
Trump orders blockade of ‘sanctioned’ Venezuela oil tankers
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a blockade of “sanctioned oil vessels” heading to and leaving Venezuela, sharply escalating his pressure campaign against Caracas while issuing new demands for access to the country’s crude.
The United States has for months been building a major military deployment in the Caribbean — with the stated goal of combatting Latin American drug trafficking, but taking particular aim at Venezuela.
Caracas views the operation as a campaign to push out leftist strongman Nicolas Maduro — whom Washington and many nations view as an illegitimate president — and to “steal” Venezuelan oil.
Tensions have been mounting for weeks as Trump signals intent to launch military action inside Venezuela, ominously declaring that the country’s airspace should be considered “closed” and that efforts at halting drug trafficking “on land” would begin soon.
Last week, the United States opened a new front in the campaign, seizing an oil tanker that had left Venezuela and announcing sanctions on several other vessels and companies associated with the Venezuelan oil industry.
“Today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” Trump wrote Tuesday evening on his Truth Social platform.
Referring to the many Navy and Marine forces assembled in the Caribbean — including the world’s largest aircraft carrier — Trump warned “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.”
- ‘Stolen’ oil -
With Venezuela’s economy heavily reliant on crude exports, the move to cripple its oil sector is likely to further ramp up pressure on Maduro.
But Trump on Tuesday pointed to another goal — regaining US access to Venezuelan oil production.
The US armada “will only get bigger,” Trump said, until Venezuela returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
He did not specify what oil or land he was referring to, but Venezuela in the 1970s nationalized its oil industry.
Later, under Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, companies were forced to cede majority control to the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA.
A spokesperson for US company Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela under a special sanctions waiver, said Tuesday that its operations “continue without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business.”
Caracas blasted Trump’s announcement on Tuesday, saying he aimed at “stealing the riches that belong to our homeland.”
Venezuela has been sidestepping US oil sanctions for years, selling crude at a discounted price on the black market, mainly to China.
Venezuela is estimated to have oil reserves of some 303 billion barrels, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) — more than any other nation.
“If there are no oil exports, it will affect the foreign exchange market, the country’s imports... There could be an economic crisis,” Elias Ferrer of Orinoco Research, a Venezuelan advisory firm, told AFP recently.
“Not just a recession, but also shortages of food and medicine, because we wouldn’t be able to import.”
- ‘Terrorist’ regime -
The Pentagon has defended its operation, dubbed “Southern Spear,” by arguing it is targeting drug cartels designated under the Trump administration as foreign terrorist organizations.
The US military has thus far only struck boats in international waters it claims are trafficking drugs, killing at least 95 people, in what many experts say amount to extrajudicial killings.
But Trump’s administration has also given terrorist designation to an alleged Venezuelan group, the Cartel de los Soles — and claims that Maduro is its leader.
“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump said.
The United States has for months been building a major military deployment in the Caribbean — with the stated goal of combatting Latin American drug trafficking, but taking particular aim at Venezuela.
Caracas views the operation as a campaign to push out leftist strongman Nicolas Maduro — whom Washington and many nations view as an illegitimate president — and to “steal” Venezuelan oil.
Tensions have been mounting for weeks as Trump signals intent to launch military action inside Venezuela, ominously declaring that the country’s airspace should be considered “closed” and that efforts at halting drug trafficking “on land” would begin soon.
Last week, the United States opened a new front in the campaign, seizing an oil tanker that had left Venezuela and announcing sanctions on several other vessels and companies associated with the Venezuelan oil industry.
“Today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” Trump wrote Tuesday evening on his Truth Social platform.
Referring to the many Navy and Marine forces assembled in the Caribbean — including the world’s largest aircraft carrier — Trump warned “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.”
- ‘Stolen’ oil -
With Venezuela’s economy heavily reliant on crude exports, the move to cripple its oil sector is likely to further ramp up pressure on Maduro.
But Trump on Tuesday pointed to another goal — regaining US access to Venezuelan oil production.
The US armada “will only get bigger,” Trump said, until Venezuela returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
He did not specify what oil or land he was referring to, but Venezuela in the 1970s nationalized its oil industry.
Later, under Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, companies were forced to cede majority control to the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA.
A spokesperson for US company Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela under a special sanctions waiver, said Tuesday that its operations “continue without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business.”
Caracas blasted Trump’s announcement on Tuesday, saying he aimed at “stealing the riches that belong to our homeland.”
Venezuela has been sidestepping US oil sanctions for years, selling crude at a discounted price on the black market, mainly to China.
Venezuela is estimated to have oil reserves of some 303 billion barrels, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) — more than any other nation.
“If there are no oil exports, it will affect the foreign exchange market, the country’s imports... There could be an economic crisis,” Elias Ferrer of Orinoco Research, a Venezuelan advisory firm, told AFP recently.
“Not just a recession, but also shortages of food and medicine, because we wouldn’t be able to import.”
- ‘Terrorist’ regime -
The Pentagon has defended its operation, dubbed “Southern Spear,” by arguing it is targeting drug cartels designated under the Trump administration as foreign terrorist organizations.
The US military has thus far only struck boats in international waters it claims are trafficking drugs, killing at least 95 people, in what many experts say amount to extrajudicial killings.
But Trump’s administration has also given terrorist designation to an alleged Venezuelan group, the Cartel de los Soles — and claims that Maduro is its leader.
“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump said.
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