SRINAGAR, India – Indian police shot dead 13 people in Kashmir on Monday as stone-throwing rioters defied curfews and torched a Christian school in a surge of anger stoked by the desecration of the Koran.
The death toll was the highest for a single day since a wave of anti-India demonstrations began three months ago, with 84 civilians now killed in unrest in the disputed Muslim-majority region. One policeman also died Monday.
In New Delhi, the cabinet met to discuss steps to defuse the tension, but decided against heeding calls from some in the government to partially lift a 20-year-old emergency law that is despised by many in Kashmir.
The cabinet said it was "deeply distressed" by the unrest, but offered no new initiatives besides an all-party meeting for later in the week to discuss solutions.
Some of Monday's worst rioting was reported in Tangmarg village, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the region's main town of Srinagar, where a crowd chanted anti-US and pro-Islam slogans before burning down a missionary school.
No one was injured in the fire at Tyndale Biscoe School, but at least five civilians were killed when security forces opened fire on the crowd as it attempted to set fire to government buildings, local police said.
"The loss of property has been huge," top state police official Kuldeep Khoda told reporters in Srinagar, detailing the day's unrest which saw at least one mob attack a camp of heavily armed paramilitary forces.
He confirmed that 13 civilians had been killed and one policeman had also died. He said 45 protesters and 130 policemen had been injured, while 52 people were arrested.
"We are taking necessary measures to prevent loss of life and property all over the Kashmir valley," he added.
Khoda and other local officials blamed Iran's state-run Press TV for fanning simmering anger in Kashmir with a report on a group of Christians who tore pages from the Koran in a demonstration outside the White House on Saturday.
Local authorities later banned the station from broadcasting on local cable channels.
The US ambassador to India, Timothy J. Roemer, said he was "dismayed" to see the reports of violence and repeated President Barack Obama's condemnation of the Koran-ripping.
Hardline Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Geelani, who has orchestrated recent anti-India demonstrations, also called for calm and for Christians to be protected.
"I urge the Muslims to protect the members of minority community and their religious places. We should at any cost maintain the age-old communal harmony and brotherhood for which Kashmir is known the world over," he said.
Kashmir is a disputed territory held partly by India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both.
Since 1990, an anti-India insurgency has raged in the part ruled by New Delhi, claiming an estimated 47,000 lives. A majority of Kashmiris favour independence for the region, according to a recent poll.
The escalating violence, which also saw a local minister's house attacked at the weekend, has raised pressure on the central government to try a new approach to solving the conflict.
It remains committed to dialogue with peaceful separatists in Kashmir, but faces political pressure from right-wing Hindu nationalists not to accede to any of their demands for autonomy.
"The youth of Kashmir are our citizens and their grievances have to be addressed," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told military commanders in New Delhi.
"We are willing to talk to every person or group which abjures violence, within the framework of our constitution."
He later held talks with senior ministers on whether to lift the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in four districts of the region, but decided against taking any action.
The act was passed in 1958 and extended to Kashmir in 1990.
Human rights groups and local politicians have long campaigned against it, saying the law encourages abuses by the security forces and adds to a sense of occupation in the highly militarised region.
It gives Indian army and paramilitary troops sweeping powers to open fire, search houses, detain suspects and confiscate property, as well as protecting soldiers from prosecution.
Under-fire Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has urged the federal government to withdraw the act, but has met with strong resistance from the Indian military.
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