India extends Kashmir curfew and detains separatists

By Sheikh Mushtaq

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Indian police beat Kashmiri protesters who defied a curfew on Tuesday and troops searched for separatist leaders as the biggest anti-India protests in two decades showed no sign of abating.

Authorities said they had detained four separatist leaders since Monday. They raided the homes of dozens of leaders in a sweep that began on Monday night.

Asiya Andrabi, chief of Kashmir's women's separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Muslim Faith) who led series of anti-India protests over the last two weeks was detained late on Tuesday, police said.

Police on Monday killed five protesters who defied the curfew, bringing the death toll to at least 28 in the biggest demonstrations since a revolt against Indian rule by the region's Muslim majority broke out in 1989.

The Indian government says its security forces have been fired upon by protesters on several occasions, questioning separatist statements that their protests were peaceful.

The government has also disputed whether Sheikh Aziz, a senior separatist leader, was killed by police gunfire, saying someone among the crowd of protesters could have shot him.

More than 600 people have been injured in clashes over the two weeks of protests. The state, whose tourist brochures proclaim the Kashmir valley as "paradise on earth", has suffered more than $1 billion in lost business.

Police used tear gas and beat hundreds of protesters with batons for defying the curfew in the Achabal area, about 100 km (60 miles) south of Srinagar, the summer capital, police said.