Indian Police Use Brutal Force against Shiite Mourners in Srinagar (+Video)

Hundreds of Muslims chanting religious and pro-freedom slogans took to the streets in the main city of Srinagar despite security restrictions banning the traditional procession.

Scores of mourners were severely injured after Indian forces resorted to brutal force and also fired tear smoke shells and shotgun pellets to foil the traditional Muharram procession.  

The government forces used batons to beat journalists covering the procession, according to a Tasnim reporter. Authorities erected steel barricades and barbed wire to block the crowds.

But hundreds of mourners defied restrictions and took to the streets in Srinagar to commemorate the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Imam Hussein (AS). They raised Islamic and free-Kashmir slogans as they marched towards the city center.

Shiite Muslims across the world hold large processions in Muharram in which people recite elegies to mourn the martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) grandson. The mourning reaches its peak on Ashura, the 10th day of the month in the Islamic lunar calendar. Tuesday’s procession marked the eighth day on the calendar.

The traditional religious procession turned violent last year as Indian forces fired shotgun pellets to disperse crowds, injuring dozens.

Muharram processions have been banned in Indian-administered Kashmir since 1989.

The religious bodies and civil rights groups have long been demanding revocation of the draconian ban. They term it a breach of their religious freedom.

Kashmiri Muslims have long complained that the government is curbing their religious freedom on the pretext of maintaining law and order while promoting an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Himalayan Amarnath Shrine in Kashmir that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors.