Anti-India protests in Kashmir intensified Saturday after a teenage boy was killed and 14 other protesters were injured overnight in clashes with police.
Groups of pro-independence demonstrators clashed with police in Baramullah, 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Srinagar, the main city in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir, a police officer said on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy.
The protests began soon after Friday prayers at a local mosque, said Mufaiz Ahmed, a Baramullah resident who witnessed the clashes. Police fired tear gas shells to disperse the stone-throwing protesters.
The 13-year-old boy was hit on the head by a tear gas shell and died in a Srinagar hospital late Friday night. At least 14 other people were injured in the clashes.
The protests intensified Saturday as news of the boy's death spread, Ahmed said.
Protesters set up roadblocks made of burning tires and logs across Baramullah's main roads, he said.
The clashes are the latest in a series of confrontations that periodically rock Kashmir, where Muslim separatists have been fighting Indian rule for 20 years.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Muslim-majority Pakistan and claimed in its entirety by both. The South Asian neighbors have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region since their independence from Britain in 1947.
More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.
