12 September 2010 - 19:30

At least 11 people were killed on Monday in anti-government and Koran demonstrations across Indian Kashmir, police said, in the biggest single death toll from protests in the disputed region in years.

Ahlul Bayt News Agency ; The toll includes seven people killed in police clashes after thousands of Muslim protesters set fire to government buildings in two Kashmiri districts to denounce reports that copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book had been damaged in the United States.

Police said these demonstrations, attended by thousands in western Kashmir, quickly turned into protests against the Indian central government -- a day after authorities slapped a curfew on much of the restive Himalayan region.

The crowds massed in Budgam and Tangmarg areas chanting slogans denouncing the United States. They set fire to government buildings, witnesses and officials said.

"Three more succumbed to their injuries in Budgam and Tangmarg and four including a policeman died in anti-government protests across the valley," Kashmir Valley's Inspector General of Police, S.M Sahia, said. Four other protesters had been killed before.

Several people were wounded, police and hospital officials said.

On Sunday, two people were killed in a third straight day of violent protests in Afghanistan sparked by a U.S. pastor's threat to burn copies of the Koran.

While pastor Terry Jones dropped his plans, there were at least two incidents of abuse of the Koran in Lower Manhattan in New York on Saturday. Two evangelical preachers not affiliated with any mainstream church burnt two copies of the Koran in Tennessee.

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