Protests by stone-throwing youths and clashes with government forces have become routine during the summer in Kashmir. -Reuters Photo

SRINAGAR: Two photographers, an Indian and a Mexican, say police detained them for several hours after beating them during a protest against New Delhi's rule in India's portion of Kashmir.

Narciso Contreras, who works for California-based Zuma Press, and Showkat Shafi, a stringer with Al-Jazeera English website, say they were targeted in Srinagar on Friday.

Contreras was being examined by a doctor in a Srinagar hospital following his release. He says government forces charged at protesters and that the photographers got caught in the melee.

Shafi was undergoing treatment at another hospital.

Protests by stone-throwing youths and clashes with government forces have become routine during the summer in Kashmir, where anti-India sentiment runs deep among the mostly Muslim population.