THE BURNING KASHMEER

protesters beat an effigy of President Obama after burning it in Srinagar, India

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

15 killed during Kashmir clashes
Violence sparked in part by report of Koran desecration in U.S.

NEW DELHI | Fourteen civilians and an Indian police officer were killed in clashes Monday in India-controlled Kashmir after a TV channel played a video that showed the destruction of a Koran in United States.

Ongoing anti-India protests in the Muslim-majority region merged with outrage over the Koran desecration to spark a cycle of violence that included the torching of government buildings and an attack on a school run by a Christian missionary.

With 15 deaths reported Monday, the toll resulting from protests has topped 80 since mid-June in Kashmir. Nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan have fought over this border area they share since gaining independence in 1947.

"We had law-and-order problems in dozens of places today. In today's incidents, [Indian forces opened fire] at about dozen places in which [14] civilians died, besides one policeman," said Kuldeep Khoda, police chief of the Jammu and Kashmir state.

He said 45 civilians and 113 officers were injured in the violence.

"The loss of property is huge," Chief Khoda said. "Buildings, police stations and a local school [run by the missionary] were attacked and burned."

The police chief said the violence erupted after Press TV, an Iranian channel, reported that a Koran had been destroyed in the United States.

A Florida pastor who had threatened to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks called off his plan late last week.

But Press TV apparently aired video of another man destroying a Koran in Tennessee.

"News reports have stated that on Saturday, Sept. 11, one misguided individual in the United States desecrated the Holy Koran by tearing pages from it," U.S. Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer told reporters in New Delhi.