The 23-year-old, who posts videos to YouTube under names such as "oppressedkashimir1," is part of a wave of Web-savvy protesters in Indian-controlled Kashmir who have begun using social networking to publicize their fight and keep fellow demonstrators energized and focused.

"(I am) an anonymous soldier of Kashmir's resistance movement, using Facebook and YouTube to fight India," Ahmed said, showing off his most recent work, a montage of protest videos and photos set to London-based Sami Yousuf's popular song, "Try Not to Cry Little One." Like other protesters, he declined to give his full name for fear of arrest.

The last three months have seen an upsurge in violent protests against Indian rule in Kashmir, a region divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.

The protesters, mostly youths wearing jeans and hooded shirts, call themselves "sangbazan," or the stone pelters. They have covered Srinagar and other major Kashmiri towns with pro-independence graffiti and mounted fierce stone barrages against security forces, sometimes surrounding armored vehicles and throwing stones inside through the firing slats.

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More than 60 protesters and almost 70 government forces were injured on one of the worst days in nearly two months of violent clashes between troops and residents who strongly oppose India's rule over the predominantly Muslim region.

The top elected official in the predominantly Muslim region, Omar Abdullah, met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday to discuss defusing the crisis that has caused 40 deaths over seven weeks.

"The need is to end the cycle of violence. Some semblance of normalcy has to be a precursor for any political initiative," Abdullah told reporters.

The recent unrest in the Himalayan region -- divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both -- is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi's rule sparked an armed conflict that has since claimed 68,000 lives, mostly civilians.

Kashmiri Muslims have held massive street protests, attacked security camps with rocks and burned police stations. Government forces have responded by using live ammunition and tear gas to break up the protests.

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