The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Srinagar

Hundreds of villagers held angry protests in Indian Kashmir over the killing of a Muslim farmer by paramilitary forces, police and residents said.

Residents said 28-year old Bilal Bhat was shot dead Wednesday by paramilitary police after an argument

"Our men fired in self-defence after a group of villagers manhandled them and tried to snatch their weapon, resulting in the death of a villager," Central Reserve Police Force spokesman S.K. Singh told AFP. One of the paramilitary troopers had been detained as part of investigations, Singh said. Protest broke out immediately and continued Thursday.

More than 2,500 villagers marched to Pulwama town on Thursday to demonstrate, said a police officer who asked not to be named.

They were chanting slogans such as "we want freedom" and "hang the killers," he said.

Indian security forces are often accused of human rights violations in Kashmir, where a separatist insurgency erupted in 1989 and has left more than 42,000 people dead by official count

Another report adds: Eleven suspected Muslim militants and a policeman were killed in gunbatles in Indian Kashmir, police said, in the bloodiest fighting during this holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Four militants were killed Wednesday as they crossed into southern Poonch and northern Kupwara districts from the Pakistani-zone of the divided state, a police spokesman said on Wednesday. A de facto border divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, which both claim the scenic Himalayan region in full.

Police said government troops also shot dead two "wanted" commanders of the pro-Pakistan rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin in southern Doda district early Wednesday.

Five more militants and a policeman were killed in three gunbatles in Poonch, Kupwara and Kulgam districts late Tuesday, the spokesman added.

"It is the bloodiest fighting since the start of Ramadan," the spokesman said. Ramadan began in Muslim-majority Kashmir on September 14.