Police shoot 13 dead in Kashmir Koran riots

Indian police shot dead 13 people in Kashmir Monday as stone-throwing rioters defied curfews and torched a Christian school in a surge of anger stoked by the desecration of the Koran.

One policeman also died.

In New Delhi, the cabinet met to discuss steps to defuse the tension, but it 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 dis-cuss solutions.

Monday's worst rioting was reported in Tangmarg village, 40 kilometers 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.

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 broad-casting on local cable channels.

AFP