NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — India’s Home Ministry estimates that 23 people have been killed and around 200 wounded during the four days of violence in the northern Jammu and Kashmir province, sources in the ministry told Sputnik on Monday.
Home Ministry sources said 18 Kashmiri youths had been wounded by police fire in the unrest that erupted in the India-administered Kashmir region last Friday.
Several killed in #India’s Jammu and #Kashmir protests https://t.co/mVW2rIThun
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Disturbances followed the killing of Burhan Wani, a 21-year-old commander of Kashmir’s largest militia group, Hizbul Mujahideen, which is outlawed in India.
Earlier in the day, the Home Ministry hosted an emergency meeting on the Kashmir crisis, which was attended by senior interior officials.
"High-level meeting is going on in the Home Ministry to review the situation in Kashmir which is presided by the Home Minister. Home Secretary, Chief of Intelligence Bureau, Chief of Research and Analysis Wing and other senior home ministry officials are present at the meeting," the ministry’s sources told Sputnik.
The region of Kashmir has been disputed by India and Pakistan since the dissolution of British India and the establishment of the two countries in 1947. Some local residents, especially those residing in the Kashmir Valley, call for greater autonomy or even independence from India.