Kashmir protests over execution

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In Indian-administered Kashmir police have fired teargas shells to break up violent protests against a court order to hang a Kashmiri man.

Mohammed Afzal has been sentenced to death for his alleged role in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.

Mr Afzal, 39, will be hanged on 20 October in Tihar Jail in Delhi, the anti-terrorism court ruled on Tuesday.

Mr Afzal's lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal, says her client will appeal to the Indian president for clemency.

Scores of protestors came out in the capital, Srinagar, and other parts of Indian-administered Kashmir and pelted stones at police.

At least 11 people were wounded in a grenade explosion in Srinagar. Those injured include nine policemen and two civilians.

A man identifying himself as a spokesman of Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group told the BBC that their group was behind the attack.

Street protests

The demonstrations in Srinagar were led by senior separatist leaders Yasin Malik and Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi.

The two have been taken into custody along with several supporters.

Street protests have also been held in Sopore, the hometown of Mr Afzal.

The Supreme Court has upheld Mr Afzal's conviction

If Mr Afzal is executed, he will be the second Kashmiri to be hanged for separatist activities.

In 1984, the founder leader of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, was hanged on charges of killing an Indian intelligence official.

Acquittal

The anti-terrorism court, which tried the case, sentenced Mr Afzal to death and his conviction was upheld in a ruling by the Supreme Court last year.

The Supreme Court did, however, reduce the death penalty handed down to a second man, Shaukat Hussain Guru, to 10 years in jail on appeal.

Two other two accused in the case, SAR Geelani and Afsan Guru, were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Five gunmen shot dead nine people in the parliament grounds, before being killed in December 2001.

India blamed the attack on the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, which it said was backed by Pakistan.

Pakistan denied involvement in the attack but relations between the two countries seriously deteriorated in the following months.