One Killed, Two Wounded in Clashes in Indian Kashmir

One protester was killed and two others critically wounded in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday when police fired on protesters during clashes with government forces at the end of polling, police said.

The clashes broke out in old town Srinagar, the region's main city, soon after polling ended and as government forces were withdrawing from the area.

"One person died and two were critically injured," a senior police officer told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

In separate incident in another area of the capital, a polling official was seriously wounded as protestors throwing rock attacked officials as voting came to a close, the police officer added. 

The turnout was low in Srinigar -- less than 26 percent of voters went to the polls on Wednesday -- following a separatist call for boycott of the ongoing Indian elections, which they described as a "military exercise under the shadow of guns."

A polling official was killed on April 24 when suspected rebels ambushed a government vehicle carrying poll officials back home.

The largest Kashmiri rebel group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, has also warned the people to stay away from the elections or face "punishment."

About a dozen rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for independence from Indian rule or merger of the territory with neighboring Pakistan.

The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.

Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan soon after the two countries, who both claim the disputed Himalayan region in full, gained independence from Britain in 1947.