SRINAGAR, India: Thousands of mourners thronged the funeral on Monday of a 14-year-old rebel shot dead by Indian troops in Kashmir, the youngest-ever fighter killed in the decades-long insurgency, police said.
Mudasir Ahmad Parrey was killed alongside two other militants, one a 17-year-old, outside the city of Srinagar on Sunday.
Parrey, a ninth-grade student, went missing in August before emerging in a photograph on social media brandishing an automatic assault rifle and military knife.
The young militants' deaths sparked angry protests in the restive Himalayan region administered by India but also claimed in full by Pakistan.
A funeral procession Monday for the slain teenagers turned violent as mourners clashed with police, who used tear gas to drive them back.
Rebels fighting for Kashmiri independence or a merger with Pakistan have been warring with Indian troops in the disputed territory since the late 1980s.
The violence has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians.
But this year has been the deadliest in a decade in Kashmir, with rights monitors saying more than 500 people have been killed from armed conflict.
Many young men die fighting Indian troops but Parrey's death shocked even a region weary from years of bloodshed.
At 14, police said he was the youngest known fighter to have died in the insurgency.
He was killed in an 18-hour siege by Indian troops in Hajin, outside Srinagar. The home Parrey and the two other militants were holed up in was blasted to rubble.
"He had never failed in school exams," mourned his father, Rashid. The teenager also sometimes worked as a labourer to help out with family expenses, he added.
Many Kashmiris sympathise with the rebels fighting half a million Indian troops stationed in the heavily-militarised Muslim-majority region.
Civilians often pelt soldiers with stones while they are conducting search operations for militants, and funerals for slain fighters draw thousands of mourners and see shops closed.
New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of stoking anti-India sentiment in the region and funding militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba fighting in Kashmir.
Police believe the teenagers killed in Sunday's fighting joined the militant group around August. The third dead fighter is a Pakistani national, police say.
Pakistan says it only provides diplomatic support to the Kashmiri struggle for right to self-determination.
Thousands attend funeral of 'youngest' rebel killed in Kashmir
Thousands attend funeral of 'youngest' rebel killed in Kashmir
- Mudasir Ahmad Parrey was killed alongside two other militants
- A funeral procession Monday for the slain teenagers turned violent as mourners clashed with police
Filmmakers defend Berlin festival chief in Gaza row
- Actors and filmmakers rushed to defend the head of the Berlin film festival Thursday following a media report that her job was on the line over a director’s anti-Israel speech at the event
BERLIN: Actors and filmmakers rushed to defend the head of the Berlin film festival Thursday following a media report that her job was on the line over a director’s anti-Israel speech at the event.
Syrian-Palestinian filmmaker Abdallah Al-Khatib kicked off a controversy during Saturday’s closing ceremony by accusing Germany of being complicit in genocide in Gaza through its support for Israel.
German tabloid Bild had reported that Tricia Tuttle was due to be dismissed at an emergency meeting on Thursday, citing sources close to state-owned KBB, the company that runs the festival.
Culture minister Wolfram Weimer’s office confirmed the meeting had taken place but made no mention of Tuttle being sacked, stating that discussions had been “constructive and open” and would “continue in the coming days.”
A group of cinema luminaries including Tilda Swinton, Todd Haynes, Sean Baker and Tom Tykwer signed an open letter defending the Berlinale as a forum for free expression.
“As filmmakers in Germany and beyond, we are following the debates surrounding the Berlinale and the discussion about the dismissal of Tricia Tuttle with great concern,” they wrote. “We defend the Berlinale for what it is: a place of exchange.”
Angry rows over the Israel-Palestinian conflict have repeatedly rocked the Berlinale, held every February as Europe’s first major film festival of the year.
Environment Minister Carsten Schneider walked out of Saturday’s closing ceremony, labelling Khatib’s remarks “unacceptable.”
Germany, as it has sought to atone for the horrors of the Holocaust, has been a steadfast supporter of Israel, and criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been more muted than in many other countries.
Conservative lawmaker Ellen Demuth was among those who condemned the “antisemitic incident” at the awards ceremony and urged “a fresh start at the top of the film festival.”
The Berlinale Team in an Instagram post meanwhile defended Tuttle, praising her “clarity, integrity and artistic vision.”
The writers’ association PEN Berlin said Khatib’s comments were protected by freedom of expression and that if Tuttle were to be sacked over them, it would cause “immense damage” to the festival.
“Such wanton destruction of the German cultural scene, such self-inflicted insularity, must not be allowed to happen,” it said.
The backdrop of the Middle East conflict led to a tense 76th edition of the festival from the start.
More than 80 film professionals criticized the Berlinale’s “silence” on the Gaza war in an open letter, accusing the festival of censoring artists “who reject the genocide” they believe Israel has committed in Gaza.
Award-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy withdrew from the festival after the jury president, German director Wim Wenders, said cinema should “stay out of politics” when asked about Gaza.
