NEW DELHI, Feb 22: Police in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday filed murder charges against the Indian army and curfew was imposed in the northern town of Sopore after two youths were killed and another was wounded in a firing incident, Press Trust of India said.

“Curfew was promulgated in Sopore town as a precautionary measure,” Deputy Commissioner of Baramulla Baseer Ahmad Khan told PTI.

The move came after thousands of people took to the streets at Bomie-Sopore and staged a massive demonstration on Sunday morning demanding punishment for security personnel.

They had allegedly fired at the youths on Saturday evening in which Mohammad Amin Tantray and Javid Ahmad died and Firdous Ahmad was injured. The protesters carrying the body of one of the deceased also demanded withdrawal of troops from the area.

PTI said an FIR under section 302 (murder) was lodged against the army at the Sopore police station. The army has also ordered an inquiry into the incident, a spokesman said.

Police said the situation in the town was “tense” but under control.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and sought a report within 15 days.

AGENCIES ADD: “Indian forces go back, we want freedom,” mourners shouted as they marched with the body of one of the victims in Bomie village, 60km north of occupied Srinagar.

Police and paramilitary soldiers sealed off adjacent areas and Sopore town to prevent more anti-India protests, police said.

Kashmir was hit last year by some of the biggest protests in two decades against New Delhi rule.

Authorities in the past have denied systematic human rights violations in Kashmir but say they probe all such reports and punish the guilty.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the region since an insurgency broke out in 1989. But violence involving Indian troops and Kashmiri militants has declined significantly since India and Pakistan began a slow-moving peace process.