SRINAGAR, August 12, 2008 (AFP) - Indian security forces killed at least 13 Muslim protesters in Kashmir Tuesday as they struggled to contain a new wave of anger against New Delhi's hold over the disputed region, officials said.

Casualties mounted the day after a leading separatist politician and five other protesters were gunned down by troops in the scenic valley, amid some of the worst violence of an 19-year-old insurgency.

Police and soldiers enforced a daylight curfew across the Himalayan region in a bid to prevent rioting and resorted to using gunfire and baton charges in the face of widespread defiance including stone-throwing, witnesses said.

'We want freedom and we will continue our struggle until we are free,' senior Muslim cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told AFP.

Police, medical doctors and witnesses said 13 Muslim protesters, including a 55-year-old woman, were gunned down and hundreds of others wounded across Jammu and Kashmir state, including in the summer capital Srinagar.

The region's police chief, Kuldeep Khuda, insisted his forces had used 'maximum restraint' and that 192 police had also been hurt.

On Monday Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a leader of the political struggle against Indian rule, was shot dead by security forces during a protest near the Line of Control, which divides the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi accused India of using 'excessive and unwarranted' force to quell the protests, and voiced Pakistan's grief at Aziz's 'martyrdom.'

One demonstrator, university student Showket Ahmed, charged that Indian soldiers and police 'love to kill Muslims.'

Indian police said they were investigating the shooting, although the Indian foreign ministry accused Pakistan of 'clear interference in the internal affairs of an integral part of India' by speaking out on the issue.

Aziz's funeral went ahead Tuesday, after mourners broke through a police cordon and freed two separatist leaders who were under house arrest so they could lead funeral prayers.

His body was driven through Srinagar and accompanied by an estimated 50,000 residents, many of whom chanted 'We want freedom' and 'We will spill blood for blood.'

The latest unrest underscores what locals say is boiling resentment about the fact that a peace process between India and Pakistan -- launched in 2004 -- has led to no progress on the Kashmir dispute.

'India is holding our region by force,' fumed businessman Abdul Hameed. 'Until the Kashmir dispute is resolved, the anti-India sentiments will stay.'

The unrest, which has shattered several years of relative calm, was triggered by a Kashmir government decision in June to donate a parcel of land to a Hindu pilgrimage trust.

The land transfer was cancelled after deadly protests, but that sparked riots in the Hindu-dominated south of Jammu and Kashmir state, with Hindu hardliners attacking Muslims and blocking the only road to the Kashmir valley.

The blockade has led to shortages of essentials, prompting a massive protest march towards the Line of Control Monday so fruit growers could sell their goods on the other side of the border.

Kashmir is split between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, which both claim the region in full, and has caused two of their three wars since independence in 1947.

Kashmiris live under a massive Indian army and paramilitary security contingent that is regularly accused of rights abuses -- including torture and disappearances.

India refuses to cut troop numbers as it says the danger from Pakistan and militant infiltrators is still too great.