[Onthebarricades] KASHMIR: Protests and unrest, Aug-Sept 2008
global resistance roundup
onthebarricades at lists.resist.ca
Thu Sep 10 15:54:05 PDT 2009
* Sept 27 - Kashmiris protest at UN in New York
* Sept 26 - Poonch - Muslim protesters demand release of prisoners
* Sept 21 - Srinagar - Thirty hurt in clashes; strike shuts down shops,
traffic
* Sept 20 - Srinagar - Protesters, police clash
* Sept 20 - Jammu - 12 Hindu activists injured by police
* Sept 19 - Valleywide protests and shutdown
* Sept 13-14 - Srinagar - hundreds in protests, clashes
* Sept 13 - Strike over police killings, protest rallies, clashes
* Sept 12 - Baramulla, Shopian, statewide - police kill two protesters
during post-prayer protests
* Sept 12 - Leading separatist injured in police attack on protests
* Sept 8 - separatists call bandh against Indian elections
* Sept 8 - protests, clashes over police killing in Srinagar
* Sept 5 - vigils, protests as separatists arrested
* Sept 6 - protester killed during Hurriyat shutdown
* Sept 3 - Hurriyat announces general strike, protests
* Aug 30 - Srinagar - Mass protests after curfew relaxation; pitched battles
* Aug 31 - Jammu - Hindu protesters defy curfew for Amarnath victory
rally, break police barricades
* Aug 27 - Kupwara, Bugdam - statists slaughter three protesters during
clashes
* Aug 26 - Police beat protesters during crackdown; hundreds defy curfew
* Aug 25 - Jammu - Police attack Hindu protest
* Aug 24 - Srinagar - Another death as police attack protesters
* Aug 17 - Srinagar - tens of thousands join rally against Indian
occupation, for slain protesters
* Analysis - Fresh protests reignite dispute (IHT)
* Analysis - separatists "out of touch" - Indian general (Rediff)
* Analysis - Kashmiris see power in peaceful protest (IPS)
* Analysis - "a perilous religious game" (Time)
http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/09/27/0809270911_un-protest.html
Intervention of UN sought to resolve Kashmir issue Saturday, September
27, 2008 09:08 [IST]
New York: US based separatist Kashmiri organisations led by the Kashmiri
American Council (KAC) held demonstration near the United Nations
seeking the world body's intervention to resolve the Kashmir issue.
The two-hour protest was organised to coincide with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh s address to the United Nations General Assembly.
In a memorandum sent to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
the KAC executive director Ghulam Nabi Fai sought UN intervention to
ensure "immediate and complete cessation" of military and paramilitary
action by the Indian forces and release of all those arrested in
connection with the ongoing insurgency.
It also called for determination of the "status" of Kashmir through a
"free vote" of the people.
Source : PTI
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/27un.htm
Rival Kashmiri groups protest outside UN
Suman Mozumder in New York | September 27, 2008 08:47 IST
Holding placards and banners, rival Kashmiri groups staged protests
outside the United Nations on Friday afternoon during Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's [Images] address to the plenary session of the UN
General Assembly.
The two groups -- Kashmiri American Council, a predominantly Muslim body
that demands the right of Kashmiris to self-determination under the UN
Security Resolutions, and the Indo American Kashmir Forum, a
predominantly Hindu outfit that highlights the plight of Pandits because
of 'ethnic cleansing' by Pakistan-aided terrorists in the state --
staged the protests side by side, separated only by waist length iron
barricades set up by the police.
Kashmiri separatists are isolated from reality
While the KAC raised slogans against the Indian government for alleged
draconian laws that imprison people who 'resist Indian occupation,' the
IAKF blamed the Pakistani government for allegedly promoting global
Islamic terrorism.
Traditionally, KAC has held protest demonstrations outside the world
body every year during India's address to the UNGA, but this was the
first time IAKF held the protest as well.
"Every year, the police decline to give permission for any protests
during the UNGA because there are always too many protesters during UNGA
and only those who had applied early for permission to stage
demonstrations, get to hold that. This year, we made it a point to
prepare early to get the permission," Lalit Kaul, president of IAKF,
told rediff.com.
In Kashmir, a new generation inherits Azadi legacy
Both the groups handed memoranda to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
urging the world body's intervention in solving the crisis.
KAC said that there must be an immediate and complete cessation of the
"military and paramilitary action by Indian forces against the people of
Jammu & Kashmir".
The organisation demanded that all bunkers, watch towers and barricades
set up by the military and paramilitary forces in towns and villages
must be immediately dismantled and the right of peaceful association,
assembly and demonstration should be restored to the people.
Expect good news on Kashmir soon, Zardari to India
The KAC memorandum was signed by Dr. Ghulam [Images] Nabi Fai, Shaheen
Bhat, Dr Ghulam Nabi Mir, Raja Muzzaafar, Aftab Shah and Hafiz Muhammad
Sabir, among others.
"The Kashmir question is one of the oldest unresolved international
problems in the world. The experience of nearly six decades has shown
that it will not go away and that an effort is urgently required to
resolve it on a durable basis," Fai said.
In its memorandum, the IAKF stated that even today the abuse of human
rights of Kashmiri Hindus by the Islamic terrorists in the valley continues.
It urged the UN Secretary General to direct the Indian government to
restore Kashmiri Hindus' political and economic rights that would give
them equal status, rather than a second class citizenship in their
native land.
"We would continue our fight for our rights, whether the world body or
the Indian government take any action or not. We will keep on fighting,"
Kaul told rediff.com.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/muslims-in-poonch-demand-release-of-rioters-before-eid_100100390.html
Muslims in Poonch demand release of rioters before Eid
September 26th, 2008 - 5:13 pm ICT by IANS -
Jammu, Sep 26 (IANS) Muslims in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir
Friday asked the administration to release the people arrested during
the riots in the region and threatened not to celebrate the festival of
Eid if their demand is not met. After offering Friday prayers, Maulana
Mufti Yaqoob, head priest of the Jama Masjid in Poonch, said: “We will
mark this as black Eid if all those arrested by the administration
during the recent riots are not released before the festival. We also
demand reinstatement of all government employees suspended for allegedly
abetting rioting.”
Eid is to likely to be celebrated on Oct 2, depending on the appearance
of the moon.
Many shops and houses of both Hindus and Muslims were burnt, looted and
damaged by either side in rioting in August during the dispute over
allotment of government land to the board that runs the Hindu shrine of
Amarnath in Kashmir.
Mohammad Afzal Bhat, deputy commissioner of Poonch, said: “We had
arrested over 30 civilians under various sections for looting, rioting
and damaging property from both the communities.”
He said some of them had managed to get released on bail while others
were still under detention.
Bhat added that 18 government employees, including eight Muslims, were
suspended for abetting rioting.
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=55832
Published On: 2008-09-21
Front Page
Thirty hurt in anti-India clashes in Kashmir
Afp, Srinagar
Thirty people were injured in fresh clashes in Kashmir during an
anti-India protest strike that shut shops, schools and offices Saturday
in the latest trouble to hit the scenic region.
Clashes erupted across summer capital Srinagar when Kashmiri protesters
chanting "we want freedom" hurled stones at Indian police, who
retaliated by firing teargas and rubber bullets.
“Some 16 policemen and 14 protesters were injured during violent
clashes," a police statement said.
The strike, called by a separatist committee spearheading recent
anti-India demonstrations in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, emptied
streets of all traffic.
"Saturday's strike is to demand the right to self-determination for the
people of Kashmir," leading separatist chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.
Separatists have been demanding a UN-supervised referendum giving people
the choice of independence, staying with India or joining Pakistan.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan hold the region in part but claim it in
full. They have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
On Friday, 20 people were wounded in clashes during protests against New
Delhi's rule in Kashmir, ending a week of calm in the restive region.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/india/2008/09/20/175565/Indian-police.htm
September 20, 2008 11:48 am TWN, Reuters
Indian police clash with Kashmir protesters; 35 hurt
SRINAGAR, India -- At least 35 people were wounded on Friday in
Kashmir’s main city when demonstrators clashed with troops in the latest
anti-India protest to hit the region, police and witnesses said. They
said Indian troops fired teargas shells and chased stone-pelting
protesters in Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital. Shouting anti-India
slogans, thousands of people marched in Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer
capital, part of an ongoing campaign against New Delhi’s rule that has
become an embarrassment for the Indian government.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-india_20int.ART.State.Edition1.26d47cd.html
Police use force against anti-India protesters in Kashmir
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Associated Press
SRINAGAR, India – Police fired tear gas and beat people with bamboo
batons to disperse rock-throwing demonstrators Friday as anti-India
protests flared again in Kashmir, police said.
GURINDER OSAN/The Associated Press
Police stood guard Friday in New Delhi, India, near a house where police
fought suspected Islamic militants.
Thousands of people took to the streets after Friday prayers in the
Muslim-majority region.
Also Friday, the Indian government said it was ready to allow trade
between Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani portion, a major
demand of recent protests.
In recent months, the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir has seen some
of the largest protests against Indian rule in two decades. A general
strike has been called for today.
The Associated Press
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1191628
Strike, protests in Kashmir after Friday prayers
IANS
Friday, September 19, 2008 18:32 IST
SRINAGAR: The Kashmir valley witnessed large-scale protests after the
Friday prayers along with an afternoon shutdown.
The protests and the shutdown followed a call by the separatist
co-ordination committee comprising of representatives of various
separatist groups, traders and lawyers.
Shops, business establishments, government offices, banks and
educational institutions shut down in the afternoon as traffic deserted
the streets.
People came out of various mosques on to the streets immediately after
the Friday prayers in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital and all
major towns in the valley and held protests shouting pro-freedom slogans.
Lawyers also held similar protests in the Lal Chowk, the city centre, in
the afternoon.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik led a
procession from Maisuma towards the city centre.
In Baramulla town in north Kashmir several thousand people took out a
procession shouting independence slogans.
Protests were also reported from almost all major and minor valley towns
including Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama in south Kashmir and
Bandipore, Sopore, Ganderbal, Kangan and other places of north Kashmir.
A senior police officer said the protests were peaceful barring some
incidents of stone pelting in the old city. He said protesters roughed
up two policemen and snatched a teargas gun from one of them at Nowhatta
here.
Police responded by using batons and firing teargas.
http://www.myantiwar.org/view/162515.html
12 Amarnath activists hurt in clashes
Web posted at: 9/21/2008 3:32:25
Source ::: IANS
Jammu • Over 12 activists of the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti (SASS)
were injured in clashes with police here yesterday at an event to honour
those killed during the two-month-long agitation for allocation of about
40 hectares of land in Kashmir to the board that runs the Hindu shrine.
SASS had booked Abhinav theatre - a government auditorium - for a
function to pay homage to those killed during the agitation in Hindu
majority Jammu region. The police had thrown a cordon around the venue.
"The Abhinav theatre management had cancelled the SASS booking and we
feared that the activists would use force to enter the premises," a
police official said.
The clashes between police and SASS activists followed after the latter
tried to barge into the auditorium by breaking the police cordon.
The police baton charged the crowd, lobbed tear gas shells and fired in
the air to disperse them. Over a dozen activists were injured in the
clashes.
On May 26, the state government diverted 40 hectares of land to the
Amarnath shrine board in the valley, prompting widespread protests in
Kashmir.
This was revoked on July 1, quietening Kashmir but triggering protests
in Jammu instead. What followed were days of curfew and shutdowns that
snowballed into the state being polarised between Jammu and Kashmir.
On August 31, the government attempted a settlement by setting aside the
land for the Amarnath board but specifying that it was only for the
duration of the annual pilgrimage.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/19amar.htm
25 injured in J&K protests
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar | September 19, 2008 21:20 IST
Valleywide post-Friday prayer protests and an afternoon shut down marred
life across the J&K Valley as 25 persons including 14 cops were injured
in clashes between protestors and police.
Police opened fire to disperse an agitated slogan shouting and
stone-pelting mob at Nowhatta as youths spilled out of the historic
Jamia Mosque after Friday congregational prayers to stage pro-freedom
protests, the call for which was given by the separatist coordination
committee.
The protests, however, turned violent after some youth snatched a
teargas gun from two cops in a lane in the Nowhatta locality after
beating them up, resulting in the police opening fire, injuring three
persons, one of them critically.
The injured were immediately shifted to hospital for treatment.
This triggered violent clashes with a strong mob attacking the local
police station with rocks.
Police and the Central Reserve Police Force had a tough time in
controlling the situation, and in the process 14 policemen including a
deputy commandant of the CRPF suffered injuries.
Police was responding by firing teargas shells and baton charging the mobs.
Barring this incident, the protests across the Valley remained peaceful
with no report of any violence coming in on Friday.
Last Friday two persons were killed in police firing and two major towns
of Baramulla and Shopian had to be clamped with curfew to control the
volatile situation.
Massive protests were held in Baramulla, Shopian, Anantnag, Sopore,
Ganderbal and other towns after the Friday prayers today.
A procession of lawyers started from the high court complex in Srinagar
[Images] and went around the city centre Lal Chowk shouting slogans.
In the city centre, protests were also held outside the various mosques.
Pro-Independence Jammu and Kashmir [Images] Liberation Front chairman
Yasin Malik led a procession shouting pro-freedom slogans from the
Maisuma locality near the city centre on Friday afternoon.
Shopkeepers in Srinagar and other towns downed their shutters in
response to the coordination committee call.
Traffic also deserted the streets on Friday afternoon.
The coordination committee comprising representatives of various
separatist groups, local traders and lawyers has called for a general
strike on Saturday.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=17258
Protesters, police clash in held Kashmir
Sunday, September 14, 2008
HELD SRINAGAR: The government forces fired tear gas and swung batons to
disperse stone-throwing protesters demonstrating on Saturday against
Indian rule in held Kashmir, said officials.
Hundreds of protesters chanted “We want freedom” and “Indian forces
leave Kashmir” as they flooded into the centre of held Srinagar.
Shops and businesses remained closed and traffic was sparse.
Police and paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas and wielded batons
against the protesters, who hurled rocks at them, said B Srinivas, a
senior police official.
He said one person was injured.
Residents and shopkeepers said soldiers entered their buildings and
smashed windowpanes and furniture and beat them with batons.
Senior Kashmiri Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Gilani strongly condemned the
use of brute force by Indian troops and police against peaceful
protestors at various places.
He maintained that the resolutions passed by the United Nations on
Kashmir were key to a permanent and easy solution to the Kashmir dispute.
Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik has
said that the ongoing peaceful struggle would continue till the goal of
liberation was achieved.
Addressing a rally at Lal Chowk in held Srinagar, he said more than 50
people have been martyred by the Indian police and troops during the
recent pro-freedom and anti-India demonstrations in the occupied territory.
He said such repressive tactics would not break the will of Kashmiris
for demanding their right to self-determination.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080913/FOREIGN/759590861/1002/rss
Protesters and police clash in India
• Last Updated: September 13. 2008 3:27PM UAE / September 13. 2008
11:27AM GMT
Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol the streets during a protest in
Srinagar, India, on Sept 13, 2008. Dar Yasin / AP
SRINAGAR, INDIA // Government forces fired tear gas and swung batons to
disperse stone-throwing protesters demonstrating against Indian rule in
Kashmir, officials said. Today's protest comes just one day after two
protesters died in clashes with authorities.
Hundreds of protesters chanted, “We want freedom” and “Indian forces
leave Kashmir” as they flooded into central Srinagar, the biggest city
in Indian-ruled Kashmir.
Shops and businesses remained closed and traffic was sparse as security
forces erected additional checkpoints. Police and paramilitary soldiers
fired tear gas and wielded batons against the protesters, who hurled
rocks at them, said B Srinivas, a senior police official.
He said at least one person was injured. Residents and shopkeepers in
the area said soldiers entered their buildings and smashed windowpanes
and furniture and beat them with batons.
“I was beaten like a dog and they would just not listen to me,” said
Maqbool Ahmed, a local resident. Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the
paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, said authorities would
investigate the allegations.
Yesterday, tens of thousands of Muslims participated in pro-independence
rallies across Indian Kashmir, leading to scattered clashes with
government forces that left at least two protesters dead and dozens injured.
Separatist leaders have warned Indian authorities that the situation
could spiral out of control if they “use force to break peaceful protests.”
More than two months of angry protests, some of the biggest anti-India
demonstrations in two decades, have left at least 43 people dead in
Indian-controlled Kashmir, most of them killed when soldiers opened fire
on Muslim protesters.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority
state, where most people favour independence from mainly Hindu India, or
a merger with Muslim Pakistan.
Kashmir has been divided between Hindu-majority India and predominantly
Muslim Pakistan since 1947 when the two countries fought their first war
over the region in the aftermath of Britain’s partition of the
subcontinent. Both countries continue to claim all of Kashmir.
Separatist movements in Indian-controlled Kashmir remained peaceful
until 1989, when Islamic insurgents took up arms seeking to win
independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.
The fighting has killed an estimated 68,000 people. Until the recent
unrest, violence had ebbed considerably as India and Pakistan began a
peace process in 2004. But the long-time rivals have yet to achieve a
breakthrough in their efforts to settle the Kashmir dispute.
*AP
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/14/stories/2008091450170100.htm
Front Page
Clashes continue in Kashmir
Srinagar: Clashes between security forces and agitators continued here
for the second day on Saturday even as Kashmir valley observed a strike
over the killing of two persons in police firing. — PTI
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Clashes-continue-for-second-day-in-Srinagar/360999/
Clashes continue for second day in Srinagar
Agencies
Posted: Sep 13, 2008 at 1647 hrs IST
Srinagar, September 13: Violent clashes between security forces and
agitators continued for the second day on Saturday in Maisuma area of
Srinagar even as Kashmir Valley observed a spontaneous strike over the
killing of two persons in police firing.
Several slogan-shouting protesters took out a procession from Maisuma
locality in Srinagar on Saturday. The protesters were intercepted by
CRPF personnel who used batons to disperse them, triggering intense
clashes as the agitators indulged in stone pelting, official sources said.
So far, there were no report of any injury in the clashes but several
persons were beaten up by paramilitary forces. The situation was put
under control after the intervention of police, the sources said.
Agitators said they took out the rally in protest against the use of
‘brute force’ during peaceful protests yesterday in which two persons
were killed and more than 130 including JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik
was injured in police action.
Shops and business establishments opened as usual in the morning but
after clashes broke out between protestors and CRPF personnel, a
spontaneous strike was observed, the sources said.
Within no time all shutters were down and offices closed and
transporters started beating hasty retreat to safety, resulting in
traffic jams.
CRPF spokesman Prabhakar Tripathy said some ‘aberrations’ might have
been committed by the personnel in the volatile situation. He said the
incident would be investigated and those guilty, if any, would be punished.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080913-0237-kashmir-protests.html
Protesters and police clash in Indian Kashmir
By Aijaz Hussain
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:37 a.m. September 13, 2008
SRINAGAR, India – Government forces fired tear gas and swung batons to
disperse stone-throwing protesters demonstrating Saturday against Indian
rule in Kashmir, officials said, one day after two protesters died in
clashes with authorities.
Hundreds of Muslim protesters chanted “We want freedom” and “Indian
forces leave Kashmir” as they flooded into central Srinagar, the biggest
city in Indian-ruled Kashmir. Shops and businesses remained closed and
traffic was sparse as security forces erected additional checkpoints.
Police and paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas and wielded batons
against the protesters, who hurled rocks at them, said B. Srinivas, a
senior police official. He said at least one person was injured.
Residents and shopkeepers in the area said soldiers entered their
buildings and smashed windowpanes and furniture and beat them with batons.
“I was beaten like a dog and they would just not listen to me,” said
Maqbool Ahmed, a local resident.
Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve
Police Force, said authorities would investigate the allegations.
On Friday, tens of thousands of Muslims participated in pro-independence
rallies across Indian Kashmir, leading to scattered clashes with
government forces that left at least two protesters dead and dozens
injured.
Separatist leaders have warned Indian authorities that the situation
could spiral out of control if they “use force to break peaceful protests.”
More than two months of angry protests, some of the biggest anti-India
demonstrations in two decades, have left at least 43 people dead in
Indian-controlled Kashmir, most of them killed when soldiers opened fire
on Muslim protesters.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority
state, where most people favor independence from mainly Hindu India, or
a merger with Muslim Pakistan.
Kashmir has been divided between Hindu-majority India and predominantly
Muslim Pakistan since 1947 when the two countries fought their first war
over the region in the aftermath of Britain's partition of the
subcontinent. Both countries continue to claim all of Kashmir.
Separatist movements in Indian-controlled Kashmir remained peaceful
until 1989, when Islamic insurgents took up arms seeking to win
independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.
The fighting has killed an estimated 68,000 people.
Until the recent unrest, violence had ebbed considerably as India and
Pakistan began a peace process in 2004. But the longtime rivals have yet
to achieve a breakthrough in their efforts to settle the Kashmir dispute.
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=607731
Two killed, 130 injured as fresh protests rock Kashmir
SRINAGAR, SEPT 12 (PTI)
Two persons were killed and over 130 others, including JKLF chief Yasin
Malik, injured in firing and baton charge by security forces as fresh
protests rocked the Kashmir Valley today, prompting authorities to clamp
curfew in Baramulla and Shopian towns.
The protesters poured into the streets shortly after Friday prayers on a
call by the separatists to press for right to self determination but
turned violent as security forces refused to allow them to march on the
roads, the sources said.
Apprehending violence, authorities had deployed police and paramilitary
forces in strength outside all mosques, shrines and sensitive localities
A roadside vendor, Manzoor Afzal, was killed when he was hit by a bullet
after security forces opened fire to quell violent protesters in
Baramulla town, the sources said.
The clashes between the protesters and security forces intensified
towards late afternoon, prompting the authorities to impose curfew in
the town, the sources said.
In Shopian, thousands of slogan shouting people took to streets shortly
after offering prayers at Jamia Masjid.
One person, Imtiyaz Ahmad Ganai alias Sabha, was killed and 13 others
injured in firing by security forces on protesters, the sources said,
adding curfew was later clamped.
In Srinagar, police fired tear gas shells and used batons to disperse
thousands of protesters who assembled at Lal Chowk after the prayers.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik received a baton
blow on his legs and was taken to SMHS hospital for treatment, the
sources said, adding nearly 25 people were also injured in the police
action.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1189785
Protesters clash with security men
IANS
Saturday, September 13, 2008 14:48 IST
SRINAGAR: A day after two people were killed and 40 injured in clashes
with security personnel, agitated mobs on Saturday forced the shutdown
of shops in Lal Chowk, the centre of this summer capital of Jammu and
Kashmir, by pelting stones at police and paramilitary forces.
Besides Lal Chowk, clashes between the protesters and security men also
erupted in adjacent Hari Singh High Street after local police and
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel used batons and tear smoke
shells to disperse the protesters.
However, despite the shutting down of Lal Chowk and Hari Singh High
Street markets, educational institutions, banks and business
establishments in the rest of the city functioned normally.
On Friday, protests had turned violent in the old city area of Nowhatta
when stone pelting mobs attacked the police and CRPF. Around a dozen
people were wounded in the clashes.
Security forces had also opened fire to disperse a mob in Shopian, 56 km
from here. One person was killed in the firing and 12 others were injured.
One protester was also killed in firing on a mob by security personnel
in Baramulla town, 54 km from here. Four other protesters sustained
injuries in that incident.
An indefinite curfew had been clamped on Shopian and Baramulla following
the violence.
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-21655.html
Protesters clash with security men in Srinagar
Srinagar, Sep 13 : A day after two people were killed and 40 injured in
clashes with security personnel, agitated mobs Saturday forced the
shutdown of shops in Lal Chowk, the centre of this summer capital of
Jammu and Kashmir, by pelting stones at police and paramilitary forces.
Besides Lal Chowk, clashes between the protesters and security men also
erupted in adjacent Hari Singh High Street after local police and
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel used batons and tear smoke
shells to disperse the protesters.
However, despite the shutting down of Lal Chowk and Hari Singh High
Street markets, educational institutions, banks and business
establishments in the rest of the city functioned normally.
On Friday, protests had turned violent in the old city area of Nowhatta
when stone pelting mobs attacked the police and CRPF. Around a dozen
people were wounded in the clashes.
Security forces had also opened fire to disperse a mob in Shopian, 56 km
from here. One person was killed in the firing and 12 others were injured.
One protester was also killed in firing on a mob by security personnel
in Baramulla town, 54 km from here. Four other protesters sustained
injuries in that incident.
An indefinite curfew had been clamped on Shopian and Baramulla following
the violence.
--- IANS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7612397.stm
Friday, 12 September 2008 16:16 UK
Two die in new Kashmir protests
Friday's clashes are the latest in a summer of violence
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir say two people people have died
during clashes with demonstrators calling for independence from India.
They say that protests have been held across the Kashmir valley. A
curfew is in force in Shopian town where one person was shot and killed
by police.
They say another man died when hit by a stray bullet in the town of
Baramullah.
A separatist leader was injured in Srinagar as police used batons and
tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Doctors at the district hospital in Shopian say 17 injured have been
brought in for treatment.
An earlier report that one person died from their wounds in a hospital
in Srinagar turned out to be untrue.
People say they want 'freedom' from Indian forces
The separatist leader injured in Srinagar was Mohammed Yasin Malik.
Police say his injuries were only minor.
Members of his Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front party say that he has
been injured in the thigh and the police acted violently and without
provocation in the protests.
Friday's protest follows two months of demonstrations throughout the
summer which left at least 40 people dead.
The BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says that the anti-India protests
have shut down the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.
Our correspondent says that the protests are in response to a call by
the Co-ordination Committee which has been spearheading ongoing public
protests against Indian rule.
The committee comprises separatist groups and trades unions.
The demonstrations began after a period of relative quiet in the Kashmir
valley.
They were initially triggered by a state government decision - later
revoked - to dedicate land in the valley to a trust which administers an
important Hindu shrine. They eventually developed into large-scale
anti-India demonstrations.
The decision to drop the land transfer led to counter protests in the
Hindu-majority Jammu area of Indian-administered Kashmir.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=405503
Yasin Malik injured in Srinagar protests
________________________________________
IANS Friday 12th September, 2008
Muhammad Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
(JKLF), was injured here Friday when the police baton-charged a group of
protesters in Lal Chowk city centre.
Malik was leading a sit-in protest of about 4,000 people at Lal Chowk
after Friday prayers. The separatist leader was injured as police used
batons and tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.
"Malik fell unconscious and was immediately removed to the SMHS
hospital," a JKLF activist told IANS.
Doctors at the hospital said Malik was out of danger, but had sustained
an injury in his leg.
Protests after Friday prayers were reported from other places in
Srinagar city and elsewhere in the Kashmir Valley.
The joint co-ordination committee of both the separatist groups of
Hurriyat conference had called for peaceful protests after Friday
prayers across the Valley and a complete shutdown after 12.30 p.m.
Addressing a large congregation at the Jamia mosque in the old city area
here today, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat
group, called on people to boycott the forthcoming assembly elections in
the state.
He was also highly critical of the police sending summons to people of
various in the city to present themselves at police stations in
connection with their participation in separatist protests and rallies.
"Once anybody receives such summons in the locality, the entire
population of that locality must go to the police station and lodge a
peaceful protest there,' he said.
"The administration should immediately stop this practice of summoning
people to police stations, failing which we shall be forced to start a
'Jail Bharo' (court arrest) programme here," the Mirwaiz said.
Elections to the state legislative assembly are due in November. The
state is under six-month governor's rule since July 11 when the previous
Congress-led coalition government fell and the state assembly dissolved
after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pulled out of the alliance
following differences over the Amarnath shrine land allotment.
The issue has had the state on the boil amid conflicting claims from
Muslims in the Valley and Hindu groups in Jammu region over a piece of
forest land allotted to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board that manages annual
pilgrimage to the cave shrine in south Kashmir.
Nearly 50 people have died, mostly in police and paramilitary firing,
during the last two months of protests over the land row.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/12jk1.htm
Yasin Malik hurt in J&K protest
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar | September 12, 2008 17:34 IST
Last Updated: September 12, 2008 23:43 IST
Two persons were killed and 40 others, including the pro-Independence
Jammu and Kashmir [Images] Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik,
injured in Valley-wide protests following Friday Prayers.
People responded in their thousands to the separatist coordination
committee's call to observe a peaceful shutdown and stage protests after
the Friday prayers.
As the Friday prayers ended, people spilled out of various mosques to
the streets to stage protests shouting pro-freedom slogans.
Curfew was imposed in the two towns of Baramulla and Shopian on Friday
evening as mob violence erupted after Friday prayers.
The authorities have deployed army, paramilitary and police to impose
curfew restrictions and defuse tension.
In Shopian town of south Kashmir, clashes erupted between the protestors
and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force and police after the
Friday prayers, when several thousand people took out a procession and
later indulged in stone-pelting.
CRPF troops opened fire at the protestors, resulting in the death of one
person and injuries to 15 others, who were immediately shifted to
hospital for treatment.
The district authorities had a difficult time in controlling the
situation, and more police and paramilitary units were moved and
deployed all over the town.
In the north Kashmir Baramulla town, thousands of protestors held
protests and later pelted stones at the police injuring 10 policemen who
fired warning shots and teargas to quell the mobs.
One youth was killed on the spot after being hit by a teargas shell on
his head and 20 others were wounded, two in firing by the CRPF. The
injured were taken to hospital.
In Srinagar [Images] people from various uptown mosques marched towards
the historic Lal Chowk shouting pro-freedom slogans as they tried to
stage a sit-in near the clock tower, a landmark of the capital city.
Police and paramilitary fired teargas shells and resorted to repeated
baton charges to disperse the protestors who, however, continued to swell.
JKLF chairman Yasin Malik, who was carried on shoulders by his
supporters to Lal Chowk, was injured in the baton charges.
Malik was immediately taken to hospital for treatment, where his
condition is stated to be out of danger.
Police also resorted to baton charges and teargas in other localities of
Srinagar where clashes erupted after the Friday prayers.
Reports from other towns of Baramulla, Sopore, Kupwara, Bandipore in
north Kashmir and Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and other towns in south
Kashmir said people staged protests after the Friday prayers.
Shopkeepers downed their shutters with other business establishments and
government offices, educational institutions, banks following suit on
the call given by the coordination committee.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/separatists-call-bandh-in-kashmir-to-protest-poll-dates/73119-3.html?from=rssfeed
Separatists call bandh in Kashmir to protest poll dates
Press Trust Of India
Published on Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 18:49, Updated on Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at
22:47 in Nation section
Srinagar: Life in Kashmir valley came to a grinding halt on Monday due
to a bandh called by separatists in protest against Election
Commission's move to decide the date for Assembly polls in Jammu and
Kashmir.
Shops and other business establishments, educational and semi-government
institutions remained closed, while attendance in government offices was
thin, official sources said.
All modes of transport were off the roads in Srinagar and elsewhere in
the Valley and work in banks and courts was affected.
Sources said no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the Valley.
The bandh was called as the EC convened a meeting of leaders of all
political parties in New Delhi to assess the situation in the state in
the wake of the recent violence over the Amarnath land row.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, too, said that the state was
not ready for elections and the government must create a conducive
environment if it wanted elections to be held on time.
"At this point in time, elections in the state will have serious
ramification internationally. There are serious concerns over extent to
which voter will participate in the election and about the polarisation
of people in Jammu," Omar said.
The coordination committee of separatists had on Sunday announced a
month-long programme including two general strikes and a call for march
to Lal Chowk to press for implementation of right to self-determination
in the state.
Police and paramilitary forces in riot gear have been deployed in large
numbers across the city to tackle any law and order situation, officials
added.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/08/asia/AS-Kashmir-Shrine-Protests.php
Police use tear gas on Indian Kashmir protesters
The Associated Press
Published: September 8, 2008
SRINAGAR, India: Police fired rubber bullets, live ammunition and lobbed
tear gas in Indian Kashmir to disperse hundreds of angry demonstrators
protesting the killing of a man by government forces and to oppose
elections due in October, police said Monday.
Shops, banks and government offices were closed for the day, and public
and private vehicles stayed off the roads across much of the region in
response to a strike called by Muslim separatist groups protesting
Indian rule in the disputed region.
Protesters blamed government forces for fatally shooting Javed Ahmed
Bhat, a 23-year-old bystander, on Saturday in Srinagar, the summer
capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
Government forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse an angry
crowd on Saturday as well.
More than two months of angry protests have left at least 43 people dead
in Indian-controlled Kashmir, most of them killed when soldiers opened
fire on Muslim protesters.
On Monday, Kashmiri protesters clashed with government forces at three
places in Srinagar, said Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the
paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, adding that troops fired live
ammunition in some places. Eleven paramilitary soldiers were injured by
rocks thrown by the protesters.
Doctors in at least three Srinagar hospitals said at least 13 protesters
had also been brought in with injuries, some with bullet wounds. They
gave no other details.
Monday's strike was called by the Jammu-Kashmir Coordination Committee,
whose members include Muslim separatist leaders and representatives of
businesses, lawyers and government employees.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a key pro-Pakistan leader, also warned the Indian
government Monday against holding state legislative elections in the
region, which are due in October.
"If New Delhi goes ahead with the elections, it will add fuel to the
fire in Kashmir," said Geelani.
Geelani's comments came as India's Election Commission began consulting
various political groups to set a date for the election.
Geelani and two other separatist leaders, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Omer
Farooq, have been put under house arrest by Indian authorities since
Friday to prevent them from leading protest marches.
On Monday, Farooq told reporters that India was pursuing a "policy of
force, intimidation and terror to subjugate" people in Kashmir. "When
you are making peaceful revolution impossible, you're making violent
revolution inevitable."
Farooq also demanded that the Indian allow cross-border trade between
Indian Kashmir and that part of the Himalayan region that is controlled
by Pakistan.
"India should open the cross border road for trade and people, or
entirely close it. We're determined to see it as an alternate route, not
yet another symbolic move."
Currently, India only allows passenger bus service twice a month between
the two regions, though government officials have said that they are
considering allowing trade across the border.
Kashmir has been divided between Hindu-majority India and predominantly
Muslim Pakistan since 1947, when the two fought their first war over the
region in the aftermath of Britain's bloody partition of the
subcontinent. Both countries continue to claim Kashmir in its entirety.
A separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir has killed an estimated 68,000
people since 1989.
Farooq said a trade delegation from the Indian Kashmir was planning a
visit to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
The latest unrest, the worst to hit Kashmir in more than a decade, was
triggered by a government move to hand over land to a Hindu shrine.
Muslim separatist leaders launched protests in June saying the
government plan was aimed at changing the demography of the
Muslim-majority region.
The plan was quickly scrapped, angering the region's Hindu minority who
also launched their own massive protests, forcing authorities to allow
Hindu pilgrims temporary use of land near the shrine.
The Muslim separatists' demonstrations have however snowballed into a
broader anti-India movement.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/09/asia/AS-Kashmir-Shrine-Protests.php
Protesters clash with troops in Indian Kashmir
The Associated Press
Published: September 9, 2008
SRINAGAR, India: Government security forces in Indian Kashmir's main
city fired tear gas and used bamboo batons Tuesday to disperse hundreds
of angry demonstrators protesting the killing of a man by troops.
Several people, including soldiers, were injured in the clashes,
officials and doctors said.
The protest in Srinagar started after a memorial service for 23-year-old
Javed Ahmed Bhat, who was killed Saturday during another demonstration
in the city.
More than two months of protests in Indian Kashmir have left at least 43
people dead, most of them killed when soldiers opened fire on Muslim
protesters.
Police admit shooting Bhat with a rubber bullet, and say he later died
of his wounds.
At least six protesters, one with bullet wounds, were brought to a
Srinagar hospital on Tuesday, according to Reyaz Ahmed, a doctor. He
gave no other details.
Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve
Police Force, said police and paramilitary soldiers were also injured in
the clashes. He gave no immediate details on the numbers.
Tripathi said police did not fire at protesters on Tuesday, though in
the past troops have used both rubber bullets as well as live ammunition
to control angry crowds.
The latest unrest in Kashmir, the worst to hit the Himalayan region in
more than a decade, was triggered by a government move to hand over land
to a Hindu shrine. Muslim separatist leaders launched protests in June,
saying the plan was aimed at changing the demographics of the
Muslim-majority region.
The plan was quickly scrapped, angering the region's Hindu minority.
Hindus then launched their own massive protests, forcing authorities to
allow Hindu pilgrims temporary use of land near the shrine.
But the Muslim demonstrations have snowballed into a broader anti-India
movement.
Kashmir has been divided between Hindu-majority India and predominantly
Muslim Pakistan since 1947, when the two fought their first war over the
region in the aftermath of Britain's bloody partition of the
subcontinent. Both countries continue to claim Kashmir in its entirety.
A separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir has killed an estimated 68,000
people since 1989.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080909/main4.htm
Over 100 hurt in Srinagar clashes
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, September 8
Over 100 persons, including over 48 cops and CRPF personnel, were
injured in a series of clashes between crowds of protesters and security
personnel across the valley, especially in and around Srinagar.
A CRPF official said a violent mob blocked a police bus carrying
personnel of 174 battalion of the CRPF near Bagi Mehtab in the evening
and they were fired upon apparently by some militant hiding in the
crowd. He said the CRPF opened fire to quell the stone-pelting
protesters, which have left at least three persons injured.
The police and the CRPF earlier fired at a crowd in Nowhatta. Four
persons were injured in the firing and one of them is lying in a serious
condition in hospital.
A government spokesperson said 32 cops, 11 CRPF personnel and 11
civilians were injured in today's clashes. However, reports said more
than 50 civilians have received some kinds of injuries.
Meanwhile, the bandh call given by the separatists brought life to a
halt in the valley as shops, private offices remained closed and private
transport was off the road. Hurriyat-led separatists had given the bandh
call yesterday in protest against the Election Commission’s meeting in
New Delhi with political parties for holding elections in Jammu &
Kashmir and alleged atrocities committed by troops on Kashmiris.
Schools and colleges were also closed and there was not much attendance
in government offices. Stone pelting by protesters at some places in
downtown was reported. A police spokesman said a couple of stone-pelting
incidents at Safa Kadal, Nowhatta and Nawab Bazar occurred.
A violent mob attacked the vehicle of Dr S Jalal, former director,
SKIMS, at Sekidafar in Safa Kadal and two civilians in the incident were
injured when his PSO opened fire. The injured were rushed to Bone and
Joint Hospital.
He said a group of people pelted stones on CRPF in Safa Kadal and four
civilians were injured as they tried to quell protests. At Nowhatta, a
group of 50 to 60 persons indulged in stone pelting but they were
dispersed and a small group of stone-pelting people was also chased away
at Nawab Bazar, he said.
http://www.zeenews.com/news467337.html
15 injured in fresh clashes in Kashmir
Srinagar, Sept 07: At least 15 people, including 10 policemen, were
injured as fresh clashes erupted Sunday between security forces and
protesters after the killing of a youth in police firing in the Kashmir
Valley.
"Ten policemen and CRPF personnel suffered injuries in stone pelting
incidents by groups of teenagers and youth at Nowhatta, Zamp Kadal,
Gujralbal, Chattabal and Safakadal," a police spokesman said this evening.
He said police and CRPF personnel exercised utmost restrain to avoid
civilian casualty.
However, official sources said five youth were also injured in the
clashes which continued throughout the day despite incessant rains.
The clashes started at Maisuma in the heart of the city and its
adjoining areas including Red Cross, Kokerbazar, Madina chowk and Nai
Sadak in the morning and later spread to various downtown and uptown
localities, disrupting normal life, the sources said.
Javid Iqbal was killed when he was hit by a rubber bullet during a clash
between police and protesters at Nowhatta following a general strike
called by separatists in support of their demand for right to
self-determination yesterday.
However, no one was injured in the clashes, which took place at Maisuma
in the heart of the city and its adjoining areas including Red Cross,
Kokerbazar, Madina chowk and Nai Sadak, they said.
A youth Javid Iqbal was killed when he was hit by a rubber bullet during
a clash between police and protesters at Nowhatta in interior city
following a general strike called by separatists in support of their
demand for right to self-determination on Saturday.
Coordination Committee of separatists had, however, asked people to
resume normal activities from Sunday.
But shops and business establishments were forced to down their shutters
by youths who visited various markets to enforce a strike to protest
against the killing.
Life in the vast area of downtown city including Nowhatta - the scene of
the fierce clash on Saturday - too was paralysed as groups of youth took
to streets at various places in the vicinity of Jamia Masjid shouting
pro-freedom slogans.
There were minor incidents of stone-pelting at some places including
Nowhatta and Rajourikadal. "The situation remained by and large peaceful
but tense," officials said.
Only skeletal transport was plying on the roads. Additional police and
paramilitary forces have been deployed in sensitive areas, a police
officer said denying reports of imposition of curfew in parts of the city.
Bureau Report
http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=113943&d=7&m=9&y=2008
7 September 2008 (06 Ramadan 1429)
Youth killed in Kashmir clashes
Mukhtar Ahmad I Arab News
ESCAPE: Policemen run for cover as protesters throw stones at them
during a protest in Srinagar on Saturday. (AP)
SRINAGAR: Thousands of angry people took to the streets in Kashmir to
denounce the killing yesterday of a protester by government troops who
fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells at Muslim demonstrators
chanting anti-India slogans, an official said.
Shops and businesses were closed and public buses stayed off the roads
across much of the region yesterday in response to a strike called by
Muslim separatist groups protesting Indian rule in the disputed region.
The strike was called by the Jammu-Kashmir Coordination Committee, whose
members include Muslim separatist leaders and representatives of
businesses, lawyers and government employees.
The angry crowd threw rocks at the soldiers, who responded by firing
rubber bullets and tear gas shells. Several people, both protesters and
troops, were injured. “The injured were taken to SMHS hospital where
Javed Ahmad Bhat succumbed,” Wasim Qureshi, the doctor who attended to
him, said.
News of the youth’s death fueled more clashes as thousands took to the
streets to protest the killing. In at least two other areas of Srinagar,
protesters burned tires and hurled rocks at troops who fired tear gas to
control the crowds, Tripathi said.
As the news about the death of Javed spread here, tension gripped the
city as mobs at Kak Sarai and Habba Kadal started pelting Indian police
and paramilitary. The body of Javed was taken to the martyr’s graveyard
at Eidgah for burial in a procession in the afternoon, after it was
handed over to his relatives by the police.
Release of the detenues rounded up by the police and paramilitary,
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in its recent crackdown on the
separatists and protesters was the other issue on which yesterday’s call
was given by the Coordination Committee, which is a conglomerate of both
groups of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), traders and
businessmen of the valley.
In another development Mirwaiz Maulvi Omar Farooq, the chairman of the
moderate APHC, announced expansion of the Coordination Committee by
involving academicians, writers, doctors and human rights activists.
“The good news is that bureaucrats and civil servants have also offered
their support,” Mirwaiz said. Police kept three key separatist leaders
under house arrest for a second day yesterday to prevent them from
leading possible demonstrations, a police officer said.
http://www.zeenews.com/States/2008-09-05/466967news.html
Protests in Kashmir; separatist leaders under house arrest
Srinagar, Sept 05: Peaceful protests were held on Friday at several
places in the Kashmir valley as authorities put separatist leaders Syed
Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik under
house arrest, official sources said.
They said police resorted to lathicharge and used teargas shells to
disperse the mob, leading to clashes between the two sides.
A police officer was injured in the stone-pelting by the mob, the
sources added.
Protests were held outside all major mosques and shrines in the Valley
on the call of the coordination committee – an amalgam of all major
separatist outfits of the valley, the sources said.
The authorities put Geelani, Malik, and Mirwaiz under house arrest
fearing that the presence of these leaders at Friday congregations could
lead to law and order problems.
Geelani had said he would offer Friday prayers at the Hazratbal Shrine
but was confined to his residence at Hyderpora by a posse of policemen
early today.
Reports of peaceful demonstrations after Friday prayers were also
received from Anantnag, Baramulla, Bandipora, Budgam, Pulwama, Kupwara,
Ganderbal, Shopian and Kulgam districts.
The coordination committee has called for a general strike tomorrow.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/230103,one-killed-during-protests-in-indian-kashmir.html
One killed during protests in Indian Kashmir
Posted : Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:56:06 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : India (World)
Srinagar, India - Violence broke out in India-administered Kashmir after
a two-week lull on Saturday, with the death of a demonstrator when
police fired to disperse protestors. The police said they fired to
disperse a mob of protestors who pelted stones at security forces
personnel in the old quarters of Jammu and Kashmir state capital
Srinagar. Two people were injured and admitted to hospital.
Protestors shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans gathered in
several parts of the city which saw a complete shutdown in response to a
strike call by the separatist Hurriyat Conference.
Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing violent protests during the last
two months over an order allotting land to a Hindu cave shrine.
The unrest, the most widespread in the region in over a decade, has seen
clashes between protestors and security forces leaving at least 50 dead.
A coordination committee which is spearheading the protests in the
Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, in the upper region of the state, has
called a meeting on Sunday to discuss further protest plans.
http://www.zeenews.com/States/2008-09-06/467072news.html
One killed as police tries to quell protests in Kashmir
Srinagar, Sept 06: One protestor was killed and another injured in
clashes between police and protestors in Nowhatta, Srinagar on Saturday
during a shutdown called by separatists in the Kashmir valley.
Hospital officials said it was not clear yet whether the youth had died
in firing or after being hit by a rubber bullet.
Meanwhile, life in the Kashmir valley remained tense on Saturday due to
the shutdown called by the joint coordination committee of both the
separatist Hurriyat groups.
Shops, business establishments, educational institutions and banks
remained closed in this summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Attendance
in government offices was very thin due to the non-availability of
public transport.
Reports reaching here from the district headquarters of Anantnag,
Kulgam, Shopian, Pulwama, Badgam, Ganderbal, Bandipora, Kupwara and
Baramulla indicated that the shutdown was total.
The separatist coordination committee had called for peaceful symbolic
protests Friday to be followed by Saturday's shutdown across the valley.
“Today's shutdown call is against the agreement over the forest land
between the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti and the government, which we
have already rejected,” separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said here.
Meanwhile, Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik
continued to remain under house arrest for the third day Saturday.
Geelani and the Mirwaiz were arrested Aug 24, while Malik was detained
Aug 25 to prevent their participation in the proposed separatist march
to city centre Lal Chowk on Aug 25.
They had been released on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan
that began here Tuesday.
Bureau Report
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080907/main6.htm
One killed in fresh Srinagar protests
Kumar Rakesh
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, September 6
The ever-fragile calm of Kashmir was shattered today when a man was
killed after being hit by a rubber bullet of the security forces in
Srinagar.
Earlier, a violent mob comprising hundreds of youths charged towards the
security personnel and attacked them with stones and even threw a petrol
bomb.
Life in the valley was paralysed as shops, offices and educational
facilities were closed on account of the bandh call given by the
Hurriyat-led coordination committee.
A police official said a large crowd gathered at Nowhatta in the
downtown and resorted to stone-pelting on security personnel. A petrol
bomb was hurled at a local police station, though it exploded outside
the building.
As the situation deteriorated, the police and security personnel fired
tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. One
Javaid Ahmad Bhat died when he was hit by a rubber bullet in his chest.
Another Jahangir Bhat sustained injuries in his leg. “At least 15
persons were injured, including four security personnel,” a police
official said.
Locals said the killed man was not in the agitating crowd. “He was a
taxi driver and happened to be there when the bullet hit him,” Ghulam
Ahmad, a local said.
Javaid’s death sparked off a massive demonstration. Hundreds of people
came out of their homes and sat on the road with his body.
People took to roads in different localities of the summer capital,
especially as the news of death spread. Protests were witnessed in
Bemina and Daresh Kadal and security personnel used force to disperse
the crowd.
Scores of protesters also gathered in Sopore and held demonstrations
demanding release of some locals arrested by the police. There were
protests in Anantnagh and Bandipore also.
Apart from pro-separatist marches, bandh kept life out of gear.
Transport services were off-road.
Top separatist leaders, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq and Yaseen Malik, remained under house arrest for the second day.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/03amar.htm
Hurriyat to continue protests in Kashmir
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar | September 03, 2008 22:28 IST
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday announced the
resumption of protests by calling a general strike on Saturday.
The APHC co-ordination committee decided to call the strike after
holding a meeting in Srinagar [Images] today afternoon to decide its
future course of action.
Kashmiri separatists are isolated from reality
"The coordination committee has appealed to the people to hold peaceful
protests after Friday prayers and observe a complete strike on
Saturday," a spokesman of the committee said.
'Why object to Islamic rule?'
The chairman of the moderate faction of the APHC, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar
Farooq, couldn't chair today's meeting as he is under house arrest. The
meeting was chaired by senior separatist leader Fazal Haq Qureshi.
Coverage: The Amarnath Row
Three top separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar
Farooq and Yasin Malik were released by the authorities two days ago.
Geelani, who was admitted at the Soura Medical Institute following a
mild chest infection, was discharged today.
Why Kashmir is up in flames
Shops downed their shutters and vehicles stayed off the roads after 5
pm, in response to a call given by the co-ordination committee.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=402477
Separatists call for peaceful protests Friday
________________________________________
IANS Wednesday 3rd September, 2008
The joint coordination committee of both the Hurriyat groups Wednesday
asked Kashmiris to hold peaceful protests Friday and observe a shutdown
in the Kashmir Valley the next day.
The committee made the appeal after a three-hour meeting of the Hurriyat
groups headed by Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq at the Mirwaiz
Manzil in the old city of Srinagar.
"After Friday prayers, people would hold peaceful protests for half hour
in their areas. There would be no shutdown Friday,' it said.
"This would be followed by a complete valley-wide protest shutdown
Saturday," it said. The statement said that there would be no shutdown
Sunday.
Contrary to expectations here that the coordination committee would
announce a separatist march to Lal Chowk, the city centre, the decision
is seen as a mild reaction to the agreement under which the government
has made available land for the use of the board that oversses the
Amarnath Hindu shrine.
The coordination committee, with representatives from both the
separatist Hurriyat groups, was formed here in the wake of massive
protests against the alleged economic blockade of the valley by
protesters in Jammu region demanding the restoration of forest land to
the Amarnath board.
People living in Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir Valley are
still experiencing shortages of many essential supplies including food,
edible oils, cooking gas, vegetables, fruits and kerosene oil.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Curfew-clamped-again-after-fresh-protests-in-Valley/355786/
Curfew clamped again after fresh protests in Valley
Express news service Posted: Sep 01, 2008 at 0152 hrs IST
SRINAGAR, AUGUST 31: On day eight of the curfew in the Kashmir valley,
the J-K Government on Sunday announced simultaneous relaxation in curfew
across the Valley but had to immediately re-impose curfew at several
places after hundreds of people took to the streets raising pro-freedom
and anti-India slogans. Four persons were injured when the J-K Police
and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) fired rubber bullets on the
protestors in the old city.
In Srinagar, as the announcement of relaxation in curfew was made,
hundreds of people took to the streets in downtown city. The people were
raising pro-freedom and anti-India slogans and demanded release of the
separatist leaders arrested by the J-K Police after their crackdown
against the separatists in the Valley. Hundreds of people took to the
streets at Rajouri Kadal, Nowhatta, Bohri Kadal, Nawab Bazar and other
parts of the old city. At Rajouri Kadal, the police and CRPF tried to
stop the peaceful protest march and resorted to baton charge. Then they
fired rubber bullets to disperse the protestors resulting in injuries to
the four persons.
The people soon turned violent and engaged in pitched battles with the
J-K Police and CRPF. Soon after the protests, the J-K Police re-imposed
the curfew in the old city.
However, in the Civil Lines city, the relaxation time passed off
peacefully and the police extended curfew first for three hours and then
by another four hours till 7 p.m.
Curfew had to be imposed again in Sopore, Baramulla and Shopian towns.
In Sopore town, as the curfew was relaxed for two hours in the morning,
hundreds of people took to streets and raised pro-freedom slogans. The
people engaged in clashes with J-K Police and CRPF. The police
re-imposed the curfew in the town soon after the relaxation was announced.
The Baramulla town too witnessed re-imposition of curfew after the
people took to streets raising pro-freedom slogans. This is for the
third consecutive day that the curfew had to be re-imposed in the town
as a result of massive protests.
Pro-freedom processions were also taken out at several places across the
valley including Shopian and Kupwara. Hundreds of people took to streets
raising pro-freedom and anti-India slogans and demanding release of the
separatist leaders. At several places, the protestors entered into
clashes with police and CRPF. More than a dozen protestors were injured
in these clashes.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Srinagar_Fresh_clashes_follow_curfew_relaxation/articleshow/3427875.cms
Srinagar: Fresh clashes follow curfew relaxation
PTI 31 August 2008, 02:20pm IST
SRINAGAR: Protesters demanding the release of separatist leaders clashed
with security forces in several areas of downtown Srinagar on Sunday
during a brief relaxation of curfew. ( Watch )
Within minutes of announcement of relaxation from 9 AM in Srinagar,
groups of people raising "pro-freedom" slogans and demanding release of
separatist leaders took to streets in Rajouri Kadal, Nowhatta,
Malaratta, Saraf Kadal, Nawab Bazar, Zaldager, Nallah Mar, Habba Kadal
and Tankipora, official sources said.
Police used batons to disperse protesters who pelted stones on them and
fought pitched battles on the streets.
However, no casualty was reported, the sources said. Fearing trouble,
the authorities cut short the relaxation period in the areas which
witnessed the protests.
In other areas of the city, curfew was relaxed for three hours from 9
AM, the sources said.
Curfew was clamped in all 10 districts of Kashmir valley on August 24 to
thwart a rally by separatists.
Top leaders of both factions of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah
Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Shabir Ahmed Shah, JKLF chairman Mohammad
Yaseen Malik and Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi were also arrested.
Curfew was also relaxed in Bandipora and Pulwama districts on Sunday
from 8 AM while in Baramulla, Budgam and Kupwara districts from 10 AM.
However, no relaxation was given in rest of the four districts of
Shopian, Kulgam, Ganderbal and Anantnag, the sources said.
The coordination committee of separatists has, meanwhile, appealed to
people to protest peacefully.
"We appeal to the people not to provoke police and troopers and protest
peacefully," spokesperson of the committee said in a statement.
http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/09/01/0809012135_kashmir-2nld_curfew.html
Kashmir curfew:Six injured in clashes Monday, September 01, 2008 21:31
[IST]
Srinagar:At least six persons were injured in sporadic clashes between
police and protesters here today even as curfew was relaxed in seven of
the ten districts of Kashmir valley for varied periods to enable people
to buy essentials on the eve of Ramzan, official sources said.
Authorities delayed relaxation in curfew in view of a call for peaceful
protests given by coordination committee of separatists and the clashes
that took place in some parts of interior and uptown city.
One Zahid Ahmad Dar was hit by a rubber bullet at Razdan Kocha near
Nawab bazar, which alongwith Fatehkadal, Saffakadal and Naidkadal areas
in downtown Srinagar witnessed violent protests, they said.
Two persons were injured at Saffakadal and another in Naidkadal, they said.
Batmaloo locality of central Srinagar witnessed brick-battle between
police and the protesters, which left two persons injured, they said,
adding police fired dozens of teargas shells and rubber bullets to
disperse the agitators.
A group of people also tried to took out a procession in Khanyar but
were stopped by police leading to a clash between the two sides.
Groups of youth also tried to assemble at various places in the city
including Nowhatta, Rajouri Kadal, Natipora, Rambagh, Danderkhah,
Qammerwari and Bohrikadal but were chased away by police, they said.
Parts of Srinagar witnessed violent protests during relaxation period
yesterday, prompting authorities to re-clamp curfew in the interior city
within minutes of easing it.
Source : PTI
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Asia&set_id=1&click_id=126&art_id=nw20080901110855154C878212
Kashmir plans more protests
September 01 2008 at 02:58PM
By Sheikh Mushtaq
Srinagar, India - Sporadic clashes broke out in Muslim-majority Indian
Kashmir on Monday as anger festered against a deal with Hindu groups to
resolve a land dispute that has paralysed and polarised the state.
The dispute about forest land near a Hindu shrine has sharply divided
Hindu-majority Jammu and mainly Muslim Kashmir, the two main parts of
the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
At least 38 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed since the row
snowballed into some of the biggest pro-independence demonstrations in
the Kashmir Valley since a revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989.
The government announced a deal with Hindu groups on Sunday, sparking
celebrations in Jammu.
In Kashmir, however, the deal has been rejected by separatists and some
mainstream parties. A curfew remains in place but more protests are
planned, separatists said.
Police fired rubber bullets at protesters in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's
summer capital, hitting a roadsweeper in the chest with a rubber bullet.
Most shops remained closed in the city.
Federal police, mostly Hindus who do not speak the Kashmiri language,
patrolled nearly every street corner armed with automatic rifles and
batons. Barbed wire cordoned off entire neighbourhoods.
Barbed wire cordoned off entire neighbourhoods. Many passers-by stopped
to show journalists bruises they said had come from police beatings.
International human rights groups have criticised Indian troops for
using excessive force.
The land dispute began in June after the state government promised to
give forest land to a trust that runs Amarnath, a cave shrine visited by
Hindu pilgrims.
Muslims were enraged, the government backtracked, and then Hindus
protested, blocking the highway to the Kashmir Valley.
The state government has now promised to allow temporary shelters to be
built during the annual pilgrimage.
Muslim separatists have rejected the deal, and the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), a mainstream party that believes in Kashmir's unity with
India, called the agreement a "move to disrespect the popular sentiments
in Kashmir".
One local newspaper on Monday splashed two photos side by side on its
front page.
The first showed Hindus celebrating the land deal with a smiling
policeman in Jammu. The second showed a Muslim youth lying in hospital
after being shot by police, echoing Kashmiri sentiments that India's
government favours Hindus over Muslims.
For many Kashmiris, the land dispute was only the spark for wider
simmering discontent about 60 years of Indian rule.
"We will continue our peaceful protests. What we want is freedom,
nothing else," said Zaffar, a 23-year-old student.
India has intensified a crackdown against separatists and detained at
least five separatist leaders, including a top woman leader, in an
effort to defuse protests.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since the armed
revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out in 1989.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Jammu_protesters_defy_curfew_to_attend_victory_rally/articleshow/3427433.cms
Jammu simmers; protesters defy curfew for 'victory' rally
31 Aug 2008, 1730 hrs IST, PTI
JAMMU: At least 28 people were injured on Sunday when police used batons
and fired tear gas shells to disperse crowds which defied curfew and
Protesters pelt stones at police during curfew in Jammu. (Pic courtesy:
Times Now)
More Pictures
broke barricades to take part in a 'victory' rally in Jammu city after
signing of an accord on the Amarnath land issue. ( Watch )
Authorities had imposed curfew in Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Poonch, Samba
and Kishtwar and deployed the Army in the entire city to prevent the
march called by Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangrash Samiti which suspended its
two-month long agitation after the government allowed the Amarnath
Shrine Board to use the land in Kashmir during the yatra period. ( Watch )
People defied the curfew at dozens of places and broke through police
barricades and barbed wire fencing put up by the Army to march towards M
A M Stadium - the venue of the 'Vijay Rally', police said.
Fierce clashes erupted in Parade, Purani Mandi, Canal Road, Jewel Chowk,
KC Morh, Janipur, Gangyal, Tallab Tilloo and Shakti Nagar, Residency
road areas of city, with police, Army, Rapid Action Force (RAF) and CRPF
personnel resorting to teargas shelling and cane-charge on protesters,
including women and children.
Irate over the police action, people resorted to heavy stone pelting and
clashed with police in which over 25 people and three police personnel
were injured.
"Fifteen persons were hospitalised and other were discharge after first
aid," police said.
"We have imposed curfew to stop people from assembling and taking part
in the major rally in view of intelligence reports of presence of some
militants in Jammu," district's Deputy Commissioner Mandeep K Bhandari
said.
Militants can use this occasion to trigger violence, he said.
"Fierce clashes have taken place in Jewel Chowk, Canal Road, Purani
Mandi and Saint Peters areas in the city," police sources said adding
people chanting 'Bum Bum Bolay' were staging sit-ins at several places.
"We did not allow people to reach to M A M Stadium - the venue of the
rally. Strict orders had been passed by Senior Superintendent of Police
(SSP) Jammu to take all measures to quell the mobs," they said.
Bhandari said about three to four lakh people were expected to converge
for the rally.
Authorities had urged the Samiti to call off the march as there were
fears that militants were present in the outskirts of the city, who could
Protesters pelt stones at police during curfew in Jammu. (Pic courtesy:
Times Now)
More Pictures
be a threat to the rally, he added.
"There is a security concern and that is why curfew was the only
alternative," Bhandari added.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Jammu, Manohar Singh said that a man
had reported entry of two militants in his house at Sangh Talab area of
Raipur-Domana in the outskirts of the city.
Army and police have launched an operation to track down militants and
the entire area has been cordoned off, he said.
The 64-day long agitation ended here today following signing of an
agreement between SAYSS and the Governor's panel headed by S S Bloeria
under which the shrine board has been given 40 hectares of land for
exclusive use by Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) for the period of yatra.
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=151875
Despite deal, Kashmir plans more protests
Sporadic clashes broke out in Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir on Monday
as anger festered against a deal with Hindu groups to resolve a land
dispute that has paralyzed and polarized the state.
The dispute over forest land near a Hindu shrine has sharply divided
Hindu-majority Jammu and mainly Muslim Kashmir, the two main parts of
the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. At least 38 people, mostly
Muslims, have been killed since the row snowballed into some of the
biggest pro-independence demonstrations in the Kashmir Valley since a
revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989. The government announced a
deal with Hindu groups on Sunday, sparking celebrations in Jammu. In
Kashmir, however, the deal has been rejected by separatists and some
mainstream parties. A curfew remains in place but more protests are
planned, separatists said. Police fired rubber bullets at protesters in
Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital, hitting a roadsweeper in the
chest with a rubber bullet. Most shops remained closed in the city.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aHhr13Fk1JEQ&refer=india
Hindu Kashmir Group Ends Protest as State Cedes Land to Shrine
Email | Print | A A A
By Jay Shankar
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- A Hindu group seeking the transfer of land to
caretakers of a shrine in Kashmir ended protests after the state
government agreed to its demands, an official said.
``The crunch issue has been accepted,'' Suchet Singh, spokesman for the
group, said today by telephone from Jammu, the winter capital of the
state. ``The government granted exclusive rights to the Shri Amarnathji
Shrine Board to use the land.''
Tension between Muslims and Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only
Muslim-majority state, rose after the government transferred land to the
shrine in June. Separatist Muslim leaders in Srinagar protested the
transfer and took to the streets demanding an end to Indian rule. At
least 34 people were killed, most of them shot by police, during the
protests.
Hindus began their own demonstrations after the decision was reversed on
July 1, blocking the movement of goods from mainly Muslim Srinagar to
Hindu-majority Jammu and other parts of India.
``We got the land back and independence to the shrine board,'' Sharma
said. ``These were two issues which we fought for.'' The ownership
status of the land will not change, he said.
The 99-acre (40-hectare) site is to be used for building temporary
structures for more than 400,000 Hindu pilgrims who trek every year to
the shrine in a mountain cave.
Victory Rally
A curfew has been imposed in Jammu and troops were deployed to stop
people from participating in a ``victory rally,'' the Press Trust of
India said, citing Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mandeep Bhandari.
More than 300,000 people are expected to take part in the rally,
Bhandari told PTI. There is a threat of militants disrupting the
gathering, he added.
Sharma said the rally will go ahead peacefully.
``We have told protesters not to confront either the police or the army.
We will not force our way through. Let people celebrate their victory,''
he said.
Jammu and Kashmir is part of a Himalayan region divided between India
and Pakistan and claimed in full by both. The nuclear-armed South Asian
neighbors have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over the
territory.
More than a dozen Islamic separatist groups have been fighting since
1989 for the state's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan
in a conflict that has killed about 50,000 people.
http://www.worldpress.org/feed.cfm?http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Protesters-clash-with-security-forces-in-Srinagar/355594/
Separatists reject accord, sporadic incidents in Valley
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Press Trust of India
Posted: Aug 31, 2008 at 2053 hrs IST
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Srinagar, August 31: The Coordination Committee of separatist outfits on
Sunday rejected the accord reached between the Jammu and Kashmir
Government and the group, which led the stir, on resolution of the vexed
Amarnath land transfer issue.
"Although the land issue has no importance for us at the moment, we
reject the agreement," a spokesman of the Committee said.
On the other hand, sporadic violence occurred in Kashmir Valley with
mobs, protesting among other things the accord on the Amarnath land
issue, indulging in clashes with police prompting authorities to
re-clamp curfew in parts of Srinagar, Baramulla and Kupwara districts.
At least nine persons were injured as police fired rubber bullets and
teargas shells to disperse mobs also protesting the arrest of separatist
leaders, youth and highhandedness of security forces, official sources
said.
They said angry youths clashed with police in Sopore township of
Baramulla, Baramulla district town and Kupwara district town in protest
against the signing of the accord between the Sri Amarnath Yatra
Sangharsh Samiti and the panel set up by Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N
Vohra.
Police assisted by security forces used batons and teargas shells to
disperse the protesters resulting in the injury to five persons at
Ribbon village in Sopore.
In Srinagar, trouble began within minutes of the announcement of
relaxation of curfew in interior parts of the city when groups of youth
took to the streets and started raising ‘anti-India’ slogans and
demanded release of arrested leaders and other youth.
Within no time, the protests which started from Rajouri Kadal spread to
adjoining localities including Nowhatta, Malaratta, Saraf Kadal, Nawab
Bazar, Zaldager, Nallah mar, Habbakadal and Tankipora, the sources said.
A youth identified as Irshad Ahmad Kenu was hit by a bullet in his leg,
while three others were injured in baton charge at Rajouri Kadal, the
sources said.
Fearing more trouble, the authorities immediately re-clamped curfew and
drove people back to their homes.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-08/2008-08-31-voa7.cfm?CFID=86898797&CFTOKEN=16595722
Kashmir Hindu Groups Call Off Strike After Government Budges
By Shahnawaz Khan
Srinagar
31 August 2008
Hindu groups in Indian administered Kashmir have suspended a two-month
protest over a land dispute, after the state government ceded to their
demands. Shahnawaz Khan reports for VOA from Indian-Kashmir's summer
capital Srinagar.
Hindu protestors celebrate by throwing color powders in Jammu, India, 31
Aug 2008
Hindu protesters defied a curfew in Jammu district of
Indian-administered Kashmir to hold a victory march after the government
acceded to their demands. Officials said they imposed the curfew because
they feared a militant attack on the victory rally.
Marchers threw stones at soldiers, who responded with tear gas.
The government has allowed a Hindu Shrine Board, at the center of the
land dispute, exclusive use of 40 hectares of forest to provide
facilities to pilgrims for three months each year. But the land has not
been transferred to the Shrine Board, as had been done in June.
Leela Karan Sharma, of Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti, the group
spearheading the protests, told reporters in Jammu the government has
met most of its demands.
"I am happy that the task that I had taken upon myself has been
completed, with honesty and courage," Sharma said. "The land has been
kept aside for exclusive use of shrine board, without any payment."
Kashmiri Muslims had protested the government's June decision to
transfer the land to the Board, alleging India planned to create Hindu
settlements in Muslim-dominated Kashmir. The protests grew into large
pro-freedom marches.
The government then rescinded the order, which led to protests in
Hindu-dominated Jammu province.
The latest government decision hopes to create peace in Jammu, but it is
unclear how Kashmir Valley will respond to it. A coordination committee
of Kashmiri Muslim separatists is discussing the issue in Srinagar, in
the absence of its top leadership.
At least 40 people, mostly Kashmiri Muslims, have been killed in police
clashes with protesters this month and six top separatist leaders were
arrested.
The U.N. Human Rights office this week urged Indian authorities to
respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and comply with
international human-rights principles in controlling the demonstrators.
India described the comments as unwarranted.
India and Pakistan each claim Jammu and Kashmir in full and control
parts of it divided by a de-facto border. Muslim separatists have been
fighting for the Independence of Indian-administered Kashmir or for its
merger with Pakistan since 1989.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/protests-against-land-deal-curfew-in-kashmir-areas/72538-3.html?from=rssfeed
Protests against land deal, curfew in Kashmir areas
IANS
Published on Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 14:58 in Nation section
Tags: Amarnath Land Row, Kashmir , Srinagar
Read Comment | Post Comment
TROUBLED WATERS: Kashmiris buy vegetables at the Dal Lake during curfew
relaxation in Srinagar on Saturday.
Srinagar: Authorities moved in quickly to re-impose curfew in a few
places in the Kashmir Valley on Sunday after protests erupted against
the state government's decision to give the Amarnath temple trust
exclusive rights over a controversial piece of land during the two-month
pilgrimage period.
In Mahrajgunj locality of Srinagar, curfew was re-imposed within hours
of it being lifted after protests broke out. One person was injured as
security forces clashed with the protesters during the curfew relaxation
period.
"Curfew relaxation was withdrawn and re-imposed in the area immediately
as violent protests erupted," a police official told IANS here.
In south Kashmir's Kulgam district, protesters came out on the streets
and burnt effigies of Governor N N Vohra after news about the agreement
between the four-member government panel and the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh
Samiti spread like wildfire in the morning. Day curfew had been
completely lifted in the south Kashmir districts of Kulgam and Shopian
following improvement in the situation. It has been reimposed in Kulgam.
According to the agreement, the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) would
get rights over the 40 hectares of forest land in Baltal during the
pilgrimage period.
In north Kashmir Ganderbal district, authorities too were forced to
immediately re-impose curfew following protests.
Reports of protests have also come in from the north Kashmir Sopore town
where people started pelting stones on security personnel during the
curfew relaxation period.
A four-member panel nominated by Governor N N Vohra reached an agreement
in the early hours Sunday with the negotiating team of the Shri Amarnath
Sangarsh Samiti in winter capital Jammu to end the row over the land
issue which has paralyzed life in Jammu for more than two months.
As per the agreement, the SASB would be allowed to use the 40 hectares
of forest land in the north Kashmir Baltal area "which would be set
aside exclusively for use by the SASB without any change in
proprietorship/title of the land which would continue to remain with the
state forest department."
The agreement is being celebrated by the leaders of the Sangarsh samiti
who are projecting it as a "victory for the people of the Jammu region".
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/218541.html
South Asia: Four Killed As Indian Troops Fire on Protesters in Kashmir
Deaths come as separatist crowds defy army curfew following Hindu shrine
decision
Indian security forces fired into crowds of demonstrators yesterday who
defied curfews in the Kashmi valley, killing at least four people, as a
new generation of youth appeared radicalized by the call for the state's
independence from India.
In a series of confrontations around Srinagar, crowds of several
thousand faced down Indian troops and police. Four deaths have been
confirmed while seven people are in a critical condition.
The state government said soldiers only opened fire after being attacked
- a claim separatist groups say is an attempt to justify the use of
deadly force.
Many of the dead appear to be either innocent victims or young Kashmiris
armed with little more than rocks and a set of well-worn
pro-independence slogans.
In the maze of back streets, the blood of 62-year-old shopkeeper Ghulam
Qadir Hajam is still splattered on the walls near his family home.
Outside a crowd has gathered with a single word on their lips: "Azadi"
(freedom from India).
Hajam, said his family, was shot dead trying to save his eldest son
Mohammed Yaquob being beaten with the butt a rifle by a group of Indian
soldiers on Sunday.
"My brother had gone to get milk for the family," said Hilal Ahmad,
another son. "We heard a noise and rushed outside and saw my brother
being beaten. My father then started to cry out to leave his son alone
and the soldiers shot him. We are ordinary shopkeepers and [soldiers]
used to come to our shop to buy milk. They knew us. Why did they kill us?"
The use of "overwhelming force" has dismayed mainstream Kashmiri
politicians, who have long defended Indian rule. Omar Abdullah, an MP in
the Indian parliament whose grandfather took Kashmir into the Indian
Union, told the Guardian that he was considering resigning.
"People in Kashmir know that the armed struggle has got them nowhere. So
they are trying peaceful demonstrations. However, if the use of
overwhelming force is used against peaceful protest then what is my
role? What space are you leaving [for democrats]," said Abdullah. "I
don't think an independent Kashmir can survive but let's have that debate."
The latest protests in the Muslim-majority state have their roots in a
decision in May to give 40 hectares (100 acres) of land in the Himalayas
to a Hindu shrine, which is visited by 100,000 pilgrims a year.
The order has been rescinded temporarily by Delhi, but the
demonstrations in Kashmir have broadened into a pro-independence
movement. Hindus in Kashmir's Jammu region have responded by blockading
the main highway linking the plains of India to Srinagar.
After weeks of protests by separatist leaders, which culminated in
500,000 gathering in Srinagar on Friday, the army began a crackdown.
First newspapers were shut down and local news broadcasts banned. A
curfew was then imposed, emptying the streets of Srinagar on Sunday.
The main political separatist leaders were arrested and imprisoned
yesterday. Military checkpoints have been set up every few hundred
meters and buildings have been covered in barbed wire.
The attempt by the authorities to snuff out the protests have confirmed
in many people's minds that the Indian government would never consider
anything but the status quo for Kashmir - over which India has fought
two wars with its nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan since 1947.
"Delhi does not want to see the Kashmir problem in terms of
self-determination," said Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a law lecturer at
University of Kashmir.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Security-forces-fire-on-protesters-in-Kupwara-one-killed/354039/
Fresh violence in Kashmir, 2 die in firing by security forces
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Agencies
Posted: Aug 27, 2008 at 1827 hrs IST
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Srinagar, August 27: Two persons were killed and another was critically
injured on Wednesday when security forces opened fire on protestors who
defied curfew in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara and Budgam districts as
violence erupted again in the Valley after a brief lull.
A group of people tried to defy curfew in Soibugh area of Budgam in the
afternoon and raised anti-India slogans, prompting security forces to
resort to baton charge and teargas shelling, official sources said.
Unable to control the mob, the security forces opened fire resulting in
death of one Hilal Ahmad Mir, they said.
Another youth was hit by a teargas shell and was shifted to a hospital
here in a critical condition.
Earlier, a group of protestors started raising anti-India slogans after
offering afternoon prayers at Banday Mohalla in Handwara area of
Kupwara, the sources said.
Security forces opened fire to disperse the mob in which one person
identified as Mohammad Yousuf Banday was injured. He was shifted to a
hospital in Srinagar where doctors declared him brought dead.
Agitated at the firing, more people gathered in the area and indulged in
stone pelting resulting in minor injuries to five police personnel.
With these, the death toll in firing by security forces on
curfew-defying protesters has now gone up to eight.
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0808271765185419.htm
2 killed as security forces open fire on protesters in Kashmir
New Delhi, Aug 27, IRNA
India-Kashmir-Protest
Two persons were killed and another was critically injured on Wednesday
when security forces opened fire on protesters who defied curfew in
Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara and Budgam districts as violence erupted
again in the Valley after a brief lull.
A group of people tried to defy curfew in Soibugh area of Budgam in the
afternoon and raised anti-India slogans, prompting security forces to
resort to baton charge and tear-gas shelling, NDTV reported quoting
official sources.
Unable to control the mob, the security forces opened fire resulting in
the death of one Hilal Ahmad Mir, they said. Another youth was hit by a
teargas shell and was shifted to a hospital in Srinagar in a critical
condition.
Earlier, a group of protesters started raising anti-India slogans after
offering afternoon prayers at Banday Mohalla in Handwara area of
Kupwara, the sources said.
Security forces opened fire to disperse the mob in which one person
identified as Mohammad Yousuf Banday was injured. He was shifted to a
hospital here where doctors declared him brought dead.
Agitated at the firing, more people gathered in the area and indulged in
stone pelting resulting in minor injuries to five police personnel.
With these, the death toll in firing by security forces on curfew-
defying protesters has now gone up to eight.
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINSP24482720080826
UPDATE 3-India extends Kashmir curfew, detains separatists
Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:55pm IST
(Updates with police crackdown)
By Sheikh Mushtaq
SRINAGAR, India, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Indian police beat Kashmiri
protesters who defied a curfew on Tuesday and troops searched for
separatist leaders as the biggest anti-India protests in two decades
showed no sign of abating.
Authorities said they had detained four separatist leaders since Monday.
They raided the homes of dozens of leaders in a sweep that began on
Monday night.
Asiya Andrabi, chief of Kashmir's women's separatist group
Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Muslim Faith) who led series of
anti-India protests over the last two weeks was detained late on
Tuesday, police said.
Police on Monday killed five protesters who defied the curfew, bringing
the death toll to at least 28 in the biggest demonstrations since a
revolt against Indian rule by the region's Muslim majority broke out in
1989.
The Indian government says its security forces have been fired upon by
protesters on several occasions, questioning separatist statements that
their protests were peaceful.
The government has also disputed whether Sheikh Aziz, a senior
separatist leader, was killed by police gunfire, saying someone among
the crowd of protesters could have shot him.
More than 600 people have been injured in clashes over the two weeks of
protests. The state, whose tourist brochures proclaim the Kashmir valley
as "paradise on earth", has suffered more than $1 billion in lost business.
Police used tear gas and beat hundreds of protesters with batons for
defying the curfew in the Achabal area, about 100 km (60 miles) south of
Srinagar, the summer capital, police said.
Residents in Kashmir stayed indoors as the military extended the curfew
for a third day. Authorities blocked four local television channels from
broadcasting on Sunday.
The crisis has strained relations between India and Pakistan, which both
claim the region in full but rule in parts, damaging a tentative peace
process and raising fears Kashmir could again become a hotspot between
the two nuclear rivals.
It has also raised fears of communal tension in the state, which is
split between the Hindu-majority region around Jammu city and the Muslim
Kashmir valley.
Residents say the deaths have fuelled more anger against India and
further alienated Kashmiris from New Delhi.
"TREATED LIKE SLAVES"
"During three months of violent protests in Jammu police have killed
three Hindus, just three Hindus," said 45-year-old Gausi Khan, a doctor.
"And in just two weeks these people have killed more than 30 people
(Muslims). This simple mathematics tells you India treats us like slaves."
The crisis began after the state government promised to give forest land
to a trust that runs Amarnath, a cave shrine visited by Hindu pilgrims.
Many Muslims were enraged.
The government then rescinded its decision, which in turn angered Hindus
in Jammu, who blocked the region's only road link and attacked lorries
carrying supplies to the Kashmir valley.
The protests have tentatively united a disparate group of separatists
like the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, which condemns
militant violence, and the breakaway group of hardliner Syed Ali Shah
Geelani, for years seen as marginalised.
The government could be forced to suspend state elections due in Jammu
and Kashmir this year, which would be a victory for separatists who have
urged a boycott of any vote.
Officials say more than 43,000 people have been killed in violence
involving Indian troops and Muslim militants since 1989. Human rights
groups put the toll at about 60,000 dead or missing.
Levels of violence in Kashmir had been falling in the past few years
amid tighter Indian security and a peace process between Pakistan and
India. (Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Myra MacDonald)
http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/26/rss.htm#31
Occupied Kashmir protests despite curfew SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir ,
Aug 26 (AFP) Indian police used teargas and gunfire to disperse hundreds
of protesters in occupied Kashmir on Tuesday as the death toll among
demonstrators rose to five, officials said. Officers said they also used
batons as protesters gathered in southern Achabal village a day after
four people were killed in police shootings and over 100 injured in
clashes. One of the injured died in hospital Tuesday, doctors said. “A
strict curfew remains in force all over the Kashmir valley,” police
officer Pervez Ahmed said in Srinagar. The latest troubles were
triggered by a state government plan made public in June to donate land
to a Hindu shrine trust in the occupied Kashmir valley. The decision was
later reversed after massive Muslim protests, angering Hindus. Since
June, at least 37 Muslims and three Hindus have died in police shootings
on protesters in the region. (First Posted @ 12:20 PST, Updated @ Posted
@ 15:00 PST)
http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200808260455DOWJONESDJONLINE000142_univ.xml
Hundreds Protest In Indian Kashmir Despite Curfew8-26-08 4:55 AM EDT |
E-mail Article | Print Article
SRINAGAR, India (AFP)--Indian police used teargas and gunfire to
disperse hundreds of protesters in Kashmir Tuesday as the death toll
among defiant demonstrators rose to five, officials said.
Police officers said they also used batons as protesters broke a curfew
and gathered in southern Achabal village a day after four people were
killed in police shootings and over 100 injured in clashes as the
restrictions were flouted.
One of the injured died in hospital Tuesday, doctors said.
"A strict curfew remains in force all over the Kashmir valley," police
officer Pervez Ahmed said in summer capital Srinagar, as New Delhi tried
to end a series of major demonstrations against its rule in the mainly
Muslim region.
The latest troubles were triggered by a state government plan made
public in June to donate land to a Hindu shrine trust in the Kashmir
valley. The decision was later reversed after massive Muslim protests,
angering Hindus.
The crackdown prevented a planned rally Monday by separatists in
Srinagar's historic Red Square.
Ahead of the scheduled event, authorities arrested two leading
separatists and detained a third as he tried to march towards the venue.
The three - Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik - have
recently led some of the largest pro-independence demonstrations since
armed militants started an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989.
Since June, at least 37 Muslims and three Hindus have died in police
shootings on protesters in the Kashmir valley and the mainly Hindu area
of Jammu.
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=151224
Three shot dead as Kashmir protesters defy India’s curfew
An activist of Sri Amarnath Yatra Sangharshana Samathi, or Shri Amarnath
Pilgrimage Struggle Committee, shouts slogans as he is arrested by
police in Hyderabad, India.
Soldiers and police fired at Muslim protesters demanding an end to
Indian rule in Kashmir as authorities arrested top separatist leaders on
Monday in a bid to quash unrest that has left at least 37 people dead
since June.
The three latest deaths came late on Sunday in Srinagar, Kashmir's main
city, and Monday in two villages on the city's outskirts when security
forces confronted angry protesters defying a curfew in the Kashmir
Valley, the Muslim heart of India's Jammu and Kashmir state. The state
government said in a statement that soldiers opened fire Monday after
they were shot at by protesters, who wounded two soldiers and two
police. At least 15 protesters were believed to have been wounded.
While there was no immediate reaction from the separatist groups that
are organizing the protests, they have repeatedly said such accusations
are an attempt by authorities to justify the use of force against
unarmed civilians. Kashmir's crisis began in June when Muslims launched
protests complaining that a government decision to transfer land to a
Hindu shrine in Kashmir was actually a settlement plan meant to alter
the religious balance in the region. After the plan was rescinded,
Hindus took to the streets of Jammu, a predominantly Hindu city,
demanding it be restored.
The unrest has unleashed pent-up tensions between Kashmir's Muslims and
Hindus and has threatened to snap the bonds between India and its only
Muslim-majority state. There was more unrest Monday in Jammu, where
police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of stone-throwing Hindu
protesters, police said. And in much of the state -- from the
Hindu-dominated plains where Jammu lies to Muslim mountain villages near
Srinagar -- strikes shut down businesses and schools.
There were few cars on the roads, and markets stood empty as Srinagar
prepared for what separatist leaders were billing as the largest protest
to date. A rally Friday attracted hundreds of thousands of people.
In an effort to head off Monday's protests, authorities arrested two
prominent separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Omer
Farooq, in pre-dawn raids, police said. Another separatist leader,
Mohammed Yasin Malik, was arrested later Monday for defying the curfew
when he tried to march to the center of Srinagar.
Police and soldiers were also out in force, patrolling on foot and in
armored vehicles.
Before his arrest Farooq told The Associated Press that the detentions
"will not deter our mission."
Throughout the morning, pro-independence chants were blaring from the
loudspeakers of mosques, and there were scattered protests, most of
which were quickly dispersed by police and soldiers.
Kashmir has been divided between Hindu-majority India and Muslim
Pakistan since 1947 when the two fought their first war over the region
in the aftermath of Britain's bloody partition of the subcontinent.
26 August 2008, Tuesday
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/26/stories/2008082655351000.htm
30 injured in fresh Jammu protests
Luv Puri
— Photo: PTI
Raging issue: Teargas shells being fired on protesters during a
demonstration on Akhnoor Road near Jammu on Monday.
Jammu: Thirty persons, including a Senior Superintendent of Police, were
injured in renewed protests in various parts of Jammu as the Shri
Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti’s call for “chakka jam” caused a complete
shutdown. The Samiti has already extended its strike till August 31.
There was no vehicular movement on Monday in response to a Samiti’s call
but sporadic violence continued throughout the day in which SSP Manmohan
Singh of 8th Battalion of the J&K Armoured Police was injured in stone
pelting.
There were also incidents of stone pelting in Kathua. Crowds were
dispersed by cane charge and tear gas shelling. Attempts were made in
both places to block the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway 1 A, but police
foiled them.
The Samiti’s decision to continue its protests is seen an attempt to
hasten the decision which the government and the Samiti have almost
arrived at.
There is a broad agreement that land will be given to the Shrine Board
for three months during the “yatra” period.
The government is trying to get the “correct wording” of the agreement
to make sure that there is no reaction in the Valley.
Samiti convener Leela Karan Sharma said, “The Centre and the State
Government were delaying the decision to hand over the land to the Board
due to pressure from separatists. In view of their dilly dallying
tactics, the Samiti has decided to continue its agitation and so it has
extended the bandh up to August 31.”
The Samiti would hold rallies on August 27 and 31 to press its demands,
he added.
The bus service between Poonch and Rawalkote in Pakistan occupied
Kashmir that was started in 2006 as part of the confidence building
measures between India and Pakistan was suspended on Monday due to
curfew in Poonch.
The Line of Control crossing was scheduled for Monday.
Officials are confident that the bus service would resume after 15 days.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080062923
No let-up in raging protests in Jammu
Zaffar Iqbal
Monday, August 25, 2008, (Jammu)
Jammu continued to remain tense on Monday. Protesters clashed with the
police on the Jammu-Pathankote Highway while they were trying to enforce
the call for a chakka jam given by the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti.
Policemen were stoned. Four of them were injured, after which tear gas
shells were fired to drive away the protesters. In Kathua district,
similar clashes broke out, leading to the imposition of curfew.
"We were shouting slogans, but the police resorted to lathi charging and
the shells even fell in the houses of the people," said a protestor.
The samiti has extended the Jammu bandh call till Sunday, saying the
agitation will go on till the land issue is resolved.
They have had three rounds of talks with the committee appointed by
Governor N N Vohra. A list of demands has been submitted. The samiti is
now waiting for the government's response.
All eyes are now on the next round of talks between the representatives
of the samiti and the panel appointed by the Governor. It seems that
normalcy can return to Jammu only if there is some sort of a
breakthrough, and both sides reach a mutually agreed upon solution.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/india/2008/08/26/171858/At-least.htm
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 0:00 am TWN, By Sheikh Mushtaq, Reuters
At least 3 killed, 500 injured as Kashmir protesters defy curfew
SRINAGAR, India -- Police shot and killed at least three Muslim
separatist demonstrators on Monday, as authorities tried to enforce a
curfew in Kashmir in the face of some of biggest protests in two decades
against India’s rule.
Police had detained three separatist leaders before protests planned for
Monday. Troops enforced a curfew in the summer capital of Srinagar,
where a separatist rally had been planned, and armored vehicles
patrolled mainly deserted streets.
But outside Srinagar, thousands of Muslim protesters shouting “we want
freedom” defied the curfew in about dozen rural areas.
Three protesters were killed and at least 50 people were injured when
police fired bullets and tear gas at demonstrators, police officials said.
Police have killed at least 27 Muslim protesters and more than 500 have
been injured in clashes in two weeks of demonstrations in the Kashmir
Valley after a land dispute between Muslims and Hindus snowballed into
massive demonstrations.
The crisis has strained relations between India and Pakistan, which both
claim the region in full but rule it in parts. It has also raised fears
of communal tension in the state, split between the Hindu majority Jammu
region and the Muslim Kashmir Valley.
Police said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chairman of Kashmir’s main
separatist alliance, All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference and
hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani were detained in overnight raids in
Srinagar.
“Both have been detained for precautionary measures,” a senior police
official, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
Another separatist leader, Mohammed Yasin Malik, chief of Jammu Kashmir
Liberation Front, was detained later on Monday after he defied a curfew,
police said.
These leaders are often detained before major protests in efforts by
authorities to try to defuse demonstrations.
“The people of Kashmir were ready to defy the curfew and carry out the
march to protest against Indian occupation,” a statement from the All
Parties Hurriyat Conference said.
One person was killed and dozens were injured on Sunday when police
fired bullets and tear gas and used batons to disperse thousands of pro
independence protesters defying a curfew. The recent crisis began after
the state government promised to give forest land to a trust that runs
Amarnath, a cave shrine visited by Hindu pilgrims. Many Muslims were
enraged.
The government then rescinded its decision, which in turn angered Hindus
in Jammu, the winter capital of the region.
In Jammu, around 25 Hindu protesters were injured on Monday in clashes
with police as authorities enforced a curfew on the highway town of
Kathua, police said.
A strike in Jammu called by Hindu groups has shut down many of Jammu’s
business for the past month.
The conflict has had little impact on national politics, with a
consensus in India that Kashmir should stay part of the country, no
matter what.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP47010.htm
One killed, dozens injured in fresh Kashmir clashes
24 Aug 2008 15:14:44 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds death, details)
By Sheikh Mushtaq
SRINAGAR, India, Aug 24 (Reuters) - One person was killed and dozens
were injured in Indian Kashmir on Sunday when police fired bullets and
used batons to disperse thousands of pro-independence protesters defying
a curfew.
Authorities imposed the indefinite curfew ahead of a separatist rally
planned for Monday, but thousands of people defied the order in the
latest in a series of demonstrations against Indian rule in the disputed
Himalayan region.
In Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, a 60-year-old man was killed and
his son critically wounded when police fired at a group of protesters,
police said.
The biggest demonstration took place in Handwara, 75 km (45 miles) north
of Srinagar where Muslims charged security personnel with desecrating
the Quran, Islam's holy book. Authorities denied the charge.
In the past two weeks Kashmir has seen some of the biggest
pro-independence demonstrations since a separatist revolt against New
Delhi's rule broke out in the region in 1989.
The protests were triggered by a dispute with the region's Hindus over
transfer of land to a Hindu shrine trust, bolstering separatist
sentiments in Kashmir.
Separatist leaders plan to address a huge rally on Monday in Lal chowk
in the heart of Srinagar, insisting they will not be deterred by the
curfew. A three-day strike called by separatists in the region began on
Saturday.
"In fact government is trying to target us. They killed Sheikh Aziz and
scores of innocent people," hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah
Geelani said. "Now they are trying to suppress our peaceful struggle."
Sheikh Aziz, a senior separatist leader, was among 23 Muslim protesters
killed by police over the past two weeks. More than 500 people have been
injured in clashes.
BEATINGS AND ARRESTS
On Sunday, several journalists were beaten up by police and three were
hospitalised, an association of Kashmiri journalists said.
"Security personnel are abusing and beating journalists," Farooq Khan
president of Kashmir Press Photographers Association said. "We strongly
condemn this."
Geelani said more than two dozen activists of the region's main
separatist alliance, All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, had been
arrested in overnight police raids.
Thousands of police and troops were patrolling the region's streets to
enforce the curfew. Police vehicles with loudspeakers urged people to
remain indoors.
On Saturday evening, hundreds of Muslims took to the streets in Srinagar
carrying torches and shouting: "Go India go! We want freedom."
The land dispute began after the state government promised to give a
forest tract to a Hindu trust that runs the cave shrine of Amarnath.
Many Muslims were enraged, leading the government to rescind its decision.
That in turn angered Hindus in Jammu, where thousands have been
protesting the revocation of the land order and criticising the
government for "pandering to separatists". (Editing by Krittivas
Mukherjee and Robert Hart)
http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/25/rss.htm#26
Indian police kill two, injure several occupied Kashmir protesters
SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, Aug 25 (AFP): Two protesters were killed
Monday when security forces opened fire on pro-independence
demonstrators in occupied Kashmir, police said. One protester was killed
and two critically injured on the outskirts of Srinagar city, where
separatists planned a rally against Indian rule later in the day, police
said. Another demonstrator was killed and seven injured in a protest
involving 5,000 people in Pulwama town, 30 kilometres from Srinagar,
police officer Tanveer Ahmed said. The rally in Srinagar was planned to
be held in Red Square, where in 1948 India's first prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru promised Kashmiris the right to self-determination
through a referendum - a pledge still to be fulfilled. More than 40
other people were injured Monday across occupied Kashmir in clashes
between security forces and demonstrators. Indian authorities imposed a
curfew on the region Sunday. Police have killed at least 25 protesters
and more than 500 have been injured in clashes in two weeks of
demonstrations in occupied Kashmir after a land dispute between Muslims
and Hindus snow-balled into massive demonstrations. (First Posted @
14:05 PST, Updated @ 15:45 PST)
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/24/kashmir.html
Indian Kashmir troops fire on protesters
Last Updated: Sunday, August 24, 2008 | 2:46 PM ET Comments50Recommend26
The Associated Press
Indian paramilitary soldiers carry an iron barricade to block roads
during a curfew in Srinagar on Sunday. (Dar Yasin/Associated
Press)Paramilitary soldiers opened fire on a group of Muslim protesters
in Indian Kashmir after they allegedly defied curfew late Sunday and
tried to storm into a police camp, an official said. One person was
killed and another seriously injured.
The protesters had surrounded a Central Reserve Police Force camp in
Srinagar, the main city in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, forcing troops
to open fire, Prabhakar Tripathi, the CRPF spokesman, said. He gave no
other details or estimates of the size of the crowd.
A witness, however, said the soldiers had fired on a man and his son
without any provocation. Mohammed Ismail said his neighbours, Ghulam
Qadir and his son, were just standing near the entrance to their home
when they were fired upon.
In Baramullah town, 55 kilometres north of Srinagar, thousands of people
also defied an indefinite curfew imposed in Muslim-majority areas of the
volatile Himalayan region.
Government troops there were forced to use tear gas and fire rubber
bullets when the mob began to throw stones at them, a local police
official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak to reporters.
Indian paramilitary soldiers carry a sign to use as a barricade during a
curfew in Srinagar. (Dar Yasin/Associated Press)
At least 27 people, including seven paramilitary soldiers, were injured
in the violence, he said.
The curfew comes amid a weekend general strike in the region's main city
and the largest protests against Indian rule in more than a decade,
intensifying the turmoil that has roiled the region for almost two months.
Police drove through neighborhoods in the mainly Muslim Kashmir Valley
before dawn Sunday announcing the curfew and warning residents to stay
indoors. Thousands of security forces patrolled the deserted streets of
Srinagar.
Police warned "stern action will be taken against violators" of the curfew.
Botlagauduru Srinivas, a senior police officer, said the army had been
called in to assist the police in enforcing law and order.
Earlier in the day thousands of people took to the streets of Handwara,
a town 100 kilometres north of Srinagar, to defy the curfew. The
demonstrators chanted pro-independence slogans and alleged that
government forces had desecrated the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
Officer says soldiers fired tear gas
Srinivas called the allegation "totally baseless." Security forces fired
tear gas and used batons to stop the protesters, Srinivas said. There
were no immediate reports of injuries.
In Srinagar, chants of "We want freedom!" could be heard from public
announcement systems at mosques. The announcements also exhorted people
to defy the curfew.
At least 10 journalists who were outside during the curfew were beaten
by paramilitary soldiers and three of them were hospitalized, said
Farooq Khan, president of the Kashmir Press Photographers Association.
The government issued a statement calling the curfew a "precautionary
measure" and saying it had information that separatist leaders could
face threats from "vested interests." It did not give any other details,
but officials usually describe armed Kashmiri militant groups as "vested
interests."
Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, a key separatist leader, dismissed the government
statement.
"If at all we have threats from any quarter, it's from Indian forces,"
he said.
Farooq said separatists would defy the curfew and go ahead with plans
for a sit-in protest Monday in Srinagar.
On Friday, an estimated 275,000 people thronged a main square in
Srinagar for a rally called by a coalition of separatist political
parties. It was the largest in two months of angry rallies that have
rocked the Indian portion of Kashmir, pitting the region's Muslim
majority against the Hindu minority.
The crisis began in June when Muslims demonstrated over a government
decision to transfer land to a Hindu shrine that they said was actually
a settlement plan meant to alter the religious balance in the region.
After the plan was rescinded, Hindus took to the streets of Jammu, a
predominantly Hindu city, demanding it be restored.
The unrest has left at least 34 people dead, mainly protesters.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1948.
Separatist movements in the disputed region were mostly peaceful until
1989, when the movements gave rise to a bloody Islamic insurgency that
wants to see India's part of the region merged with Pakistan or given
independence.
At least 68,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200808/s2337838.htm?tab=latest
Anti Indian demonstration in Kashmir
Updated August 17, 2008 12:53:38
In Indian controlled Kashmir tens of thousands of Muslim separatists
have turned out to a mass rally on the outskirts of the summer capital
Srinigar demanding India get out of the disputed territory.
They had gathered to mourn 22 protesters shot dead by Indian security
forces over the past week.
Peter Cave reports from New Delhi, the protester shouted "We want
freedom , Indians go home and Kashmir is ours."
Kashmir's chief Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told the crowd that
India claimed to be a democracy but he said the shooting were not
democracy, they were not humanity.
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the situation in
Kashmir a crisis and urged dialogue to resolve the violence in Kashmir
which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed as soverign
territory by both.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/22/asia/kashmir.php
Anti-India protests erupt in Kashmir
By Somini Sengupta
Published: August 22, 2008
SRINAGAR, Kashmir: Born and reared during the bloodiest years of
insurgency and counterinsurgency, inheritors of rage, a new generation
of young Kashmiris has poured into the streets by the tens of thousands
over the past several weeks, with stones in their fists and an old
slogan on their lips: "Azadi," or freedom, from India.
Their protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir were part of an unexpected
outburst of discontent set off by a dispute over a 40-hectare, or
99-acre, piece of land, which has been stoked for more than two months
by separatist leaders in Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu nationalists
elsewhere in India.
Overnight, the unrest has threatened to breathe new life into the old
and treacherous dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which
is claimed by both nations and lies at the heart of 60 years of
bitterness between them, including two wars.
Disastrously for the Indian government, Kashmir has burst onto center
stage at a time of growing turmoil in the region - with the resignation
this week of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, who had sought to
temper his country's backing for anti-Indian militancy here.
Even though the two countries have been engaged in four years of peace
talks, India has grown nervous that the disarray in Pakistan has left it
with no negotiating partner. From New Delhi's perspective, that power
vacuum has allowed anti-Indian elements in Pakistan's intelligence
services and the militant groups they employ to pursue their agenda with
renewed vigor.
Relations between the countries have become newly embittered as Indian
and Pakistani forces have engaged in skirmishes for the first time in
years across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between them.
Not least, India has blamed the Pakistani intelligence services for
playing a hidden role in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in
Afghanistan last month, a charge that Pakistan vehemently denies.
The latest unrest here has only added to the difficulties of renewed
dialogue.
How long this agitation will continue depends on both India's capacity
to assuage Kashmiri separatist leaders, and on their ability, in turn,
to control the sudden eruption of rage among the young.
The largest, most intense demonstration in years took place on Monday,
as tens of thousands of Kashmiris, mostly men, streamed into an open
area in the center of Srinagar to demand independence from India.
They came in motorcycle cavalcades, and on the backs of trucks and
buses. A few waved Pakistani flags. Some shouted praise for
Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned, Pakistan-based militant organization that
India blames for a series of terrorist attacks in recent years.
"India, your death will come," they chanted. "Lashkar will come.
Lashkar will come."
By Tuesday, traffic had returned to the city as the separatists called
for a three-day suspension of the strike. Shops and cafes reopened. The
pro-Pakistan graffiti had been covered up, as though it were again an
ordinary day.
On Friday, however, another mass gathering was called at the martyrs'
cemetery, where two generations of those killed in the conflict are buried.
Again and again, Kashmiris from across the political spectrum said these
scenes reminded them of the peak of the anti-Indian rebellion in the
early 1990s - except at that time, separatist guerrillas, aided by
Pakistan, openly roamed the streets with guns.
The current demonstrations have pierced what seemed, perhaps deceptively
to the Indian government, like a return of the ordinary here.
Earlier this year, tourists were flocking to Dal Lake in Kashmir. Buses
were running twice monthly so that Kashmiris could visit their relatives
across the de facto border in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir.
A bookshop opened for the first time in nearly two decades.
"Before the storm, there is always a calm," a Kashmiri woman, Assabah
Khan, 34, declared. "The uprising we see now is the latent anger against
the Indian state that has erupted again."
Narendra Nath Vohra, the governor of the Indian-controlled Kashmir
state, compared life in Srinagar today to darkness at noon.
In the last few weeks, tourists all but disappeared. Schools and offices
closed. The main city hospital was filled with Kashmiris shot and
wounded by Indian security forces.
Mehmeet Syed, who only a few months ago could sing her heart out on
stage with her five-piece rock band, remained in her home as her city
erupted in fiery protests and strikes. On the road leading to the Syed
family home, children guarded a homemade roadblock the other day,
clutching stones.
On Monday, on the edges of an open field where tens of thousands had
gathered to vent their anger at Indian rule, Abdul Gani Mir, 62,
marveled at a young man who had scaled a chinar tree to plant a green
Islamic flag. Mir said being here filled him with hope
"We succumbed, but I don't think this generation will," he said, and
then he chuckled. "I wish I were young."
His niece was among 20 unarmed Kashmiri protesters killed by Indian
security forces last week as they set off on a march to Muzaffarabad, in
Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
Sheik Yasser Rouf, 27, said he had never before taken part in a
demonstration so large, so intense. He was a child in the early 1990s,
when the anti-Indian rebellion was at its peak.
"This feeling was always there," he said. "We are fighting for our one
right, to be free."
"Sooner or later, this had to be," insisted his friend, Shahid Rasool,
also 27. Rouf said he had spent 15 days in jail during his senior year
in high school, accused of harboring militants. Rasool, then 16, said he
was picked up by security forces and interrogated all night.
The trouble in the valley began two months ago, quite unexpectedly, over
the 40 hectares of state government land that, for decades, had been
used by Hindu pilgrims on the route to a Himalayan shrine called Amarnath.
In May, the authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir authorized the
panel that runs the pilgrimage site to put up "prefabricated structures"
for pilgrims. The order enraged Muslims.
With state elections scheduled for this year, some politicians and
separatist leaders pounced on the decision and declared it a bid to
re-engineer the demography of Kashmir. Hard-line Islamists compared it
to the Israeli occupation of Muslim holy lands.
The government soon rescinded the order, but nothing, as Vohra pointed
out, actually changed: Hindu pilgrims still used the land, and they
still came this year in record numbers.
Nevertheless, the retraction of the original order enraged people in the
Hindu-majority plains of Jammu, which is also part of the state. They,
too, began agitating by the tens of thousands. And they, too, were
goaded by politicians and hard-line leaders.
All told, over the past two months, the protests here in the
Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, and counterprotests led by Hindu groups
in the plains below, have left a death toll of nearly 40 in clashes with
security forces.
The two sides remain at each other's throats. Muslims in the valley
allege that Indian troops have been quick to halt their protests, while
letting Hindus in the plains carry on their agitation.
Hindu leaders in the plains were outraged that the government allowed
anti-Indian separatists to march through the valley carrying Pakistani
flags.
Many Indians regard the rebellious tableau in the valley as an
unexpected affront. Kanwal Sibal, a retired diplomat, suggested in an
angry column on Tuesday in Mail Today, an English-language newspaper,
that unlike China with its Tibet policy, India has never sought to alter
Kashmir's Muslim-majority demography.
The latest fury, he suggested, "shows the failure, and perhaps the
futility, of efforts to win the hearts and minds of the valley Kashmiris."
Kashmiri public opinion is hardly uniformly anti-Indian, and the
pro-Pakistan current is one among many. But distrust runs deep. Rumors
travel and harden equally fast.
Muslims here complain that Indian security forces roam the streets, and
they can recount at least one memory, usually more, of humiliation and fear.
"It is a volcano that has erupted," Shad Salim Akhtar, 54, a doctor,
said of the latest agitation.
Yusuf Jameel contributed reporting.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/29anil.htm
Why Kashmir is up in flames
August 29, 2008
As someone who has been active in resolving the Kashmir issue since
1990, recent events did not come as too much of a surprise. Many
observers have commented that the situation is back to the days of
1989-1990. They are only partially right, on the surface it does appear
so, but there are major differences. How the situation is similar and
yet different is an important issue since the Indian response has to be
based on sound analysis lest we repeat our past mistakes. Public memory
is short but it is the job of analysts to remember the past and bring it
to public notice.
Rollercoaster public opinion in the Kashmir valley
The first thing to understand about the people of the Kashmir valley is
that their views are fickle and can see radical changes.
In 1947, in the wake of the tribal invasion led and masterminded by
Pakistan, the valley welcomed the Indian Army [Images] with open arms.
One of INPAD's members, retired Lieutenant General Eric Vas remembers
that the soldiers were showered with rose petals. It was thanks to
Sheikh Abdullah's secular leadership as well as the Sufi tradition that
Kashmiris rejected the poisonous Muslim League propaganda. In 1965, when
Pakistan repeated the 1947 feat and sent in infiltrators, there were
very few takers for the idea of merger with Pakistan and the
infiltration failed to achieve the goal of engendering an insurrection.
In 1975-1976, when Sheikh Abdullah was the chief minister, there was a
widespread movement in Pakistan occupied Kashmir to march to Indian
Kashmir -- an exact opposite of the present Kashmiri slogan of 'Chalo
Muzaffarabad'.
On April 1, 1979, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged by military dictator
Zia-ul Haq. His hanging sparked off large-scale violence in the Kashmir
valley. Those owing allegiance to the Jamaat-i-Islami, led by Syed Ali
Shah Geelani, were the main target of attack. Their houses were
destroyed by firebombs. The provocation: The Jamaat had distributed
sweets to celebrate Bhutto's hanging. It was the Indian Army that
rescued Geelani and his people.
On April 4, 1979, Kashmiris held a massive congregation in Hazratbal to
thank Allah that they were a part of India and paraded a donkey with a
placard that read 'I am Zia-ul Haq'.
The flip side
Post-1947 support for India vanished in a few years. In the late 1950s
when Nehru sent Haribhau Pataskar to gauge public opinion in the valley
(in order to hold the referendum he had promised), Pataskar told him
that the valley was all for joining Pakistan.
Sheikh Abdullah, who was elevated to the status of 'Pir' (holy man) by
Kashmiris, fared no better. He died in 1982. Within seven years, his
birth and death anniversary became occasions to burn his effigy. A
police guard was placed to protect his grave from vandalism. He now
became the 'great betrayer' from his erstwhile position of 'Lion of
Kashmir'.
Zia-ul Haq, the Pakistani dictator, saw a total reversal of fortunes.
His bemedalled photographs began to adorn the homes of Kashmiris.
The late Hamid Dalwai, a Muslim reformist from Maharashtra, recounted
his encounters in Kashmir that aptly sums up the reasons for Kashmiri
flip-flop. He asked several people as to why they were unhappy in India.
The answer given to him by one shikara owner was that they had
everything going for them in India, "but after all, must we not care for
the flag of Islam?"
Understanding the present crisis
The year 2008 till July was extraordinarily peaceful by Kashmir's
standards. Pakistan was so embroiled in its internal crisis that it had
no time to devote to Kashmir.
The present crisis in Kashmir erupted when an innocuous transfer of land
to build temporary facilities for Amarnath pilgrims was made an issue by
politicians like Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah. The usual Srinagar
[Images] protests by unemployed youth and crowds on hire so rattled the
government that it revoked the land transfer. At that stage, a little
firmness and explanation that the land was being given to a statutory
body established by the state legislature and that too for temporary
structures should have doused the fires in the valley. But with an eye
on upcoming elections, the People's Democratic Party and the National
Conference jumped into the fray and made allegations about attempts
being made to change Kashmir's demography!
When the land order was revoked, the government thought that like
countless other surrenders earlier, it will get away with this one too.
In any case the prime minister was busy sewing up the nuclear deal with
the US and the supreme leader of the ruling combine was enjoying the
Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images] in the company of her family! Nobody
had much time to devote such trifling matter as a major crisis in Jammu
and Kashmir [Images].
The reaction in Jammu came as a surprise to one and all (including the
ineffectual Bharatiya Janata Party which later tried to jump on the
bandwagon). Frankly, the protests in Jammu had very little to do with
the Amarnath land transfer issue. It was a spontaneous outburst of
pent-up anger at the last 60 years of mollycoddling of the valley and
discrimination towards the region. Other hilly states like Himachal
Pradesh [Images] or Uttarakhand [Images] are marching ahead of J&K.
It is the obduracy of the valley -- that sees demons in any and every
attempt at economic development as 'Indian imperialism' -- that has got
the people of Jammu agitated.
The measure by former governor retired Lieutenant General S K Sinha to
extend the Amarnath Yatra [Images] saw a bonanza in the shape of over
500,000 pilgrims making the arduous trek. Even at an average spending of
Rs 2,000 per pilgrim, it meant over Rs 100 crore was pumped into the
state's economy, directly benefiting the common man. That this was
opposed surely takes the cake, as the world over religious tourism is
being encouraged.
Part II: Kashmiri separatists are isolated from reality
Colonel Dr Anil Athale (retd) is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Fellow at the
United Services Institution, Delhi [Images], and coordinator of the
Pune-based Institute for Peace and Disarmament
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/02guest.htm
Kashmiri separatists are isolated from reality
September 02, 2008
The second part of Colonel Athale's analysis of the situation in Jammu
and Kashmir [Images]
Part I: Why Kashmir is up in flames
In a television debate, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah
mocked a Jammu Muslim who supported the agitation. Little does he or
others realise that the Muslims of Jammu have also suffered from the
stupid government policy of appeasing the separatists and kicking the
nationalists. Just one example should suffice. School teachers' jobs in
even remote Jammu regions go to Kashmiris from the valley. The teachers
so appointed (at a good salary) are absent most of the time except on
the first every month to collect their salary. The education levels
among Jammu's Muslims are abysmal. In a tehsil of Mendhar in Poonch
district, for example, there is not a single graduate!
In Rajouri division, when I led a team of scientists ten years ago (in
an attempt at bringing in horticulture technology to J&K to better
people's life), we were aghast to see a soil testing laboratory that had
a clean look about it -- all the equipment for soil testing was never
used! This is the legacy of valley appeasement that the Jammu people
revolted against.
The Hurriyat and other separatists, marginalised by the peace process,
jumped into the fray, cried wolf and went back to the bad old days of
shutdowns and marches to the United Nations office in Srinagar [Images].
A new innovation this time round was a call to march to and a threat to
take their fruits to Pakistan. In a reversal of fortune the slogan of
'Azadi' (freedom) was replaced by the cry for merger with Pakistan.
Root causes of current unrest in Kashmir
The root cause of the present trouble in the valley is the fact that
beginning in the 1980s the Sufi tradition of Kashmir has been on the
retreat and in its place the virulent Waahabi/Deobandi Islam has become
the dominant creed. Saudi money, the influx of mullahs from UP have
dealt a death blow to the Kashmiriyat that took pride in tolerant Islam.
The burqa, totally alien to Kashmir, made its appearance. Sufi shrines
like the one of Baba Rishi at Tannemarg (on the way to Gulmarg) and
Charar-e-Sharif were burnt down by the militants. Girls schools were
destroyed and Ayesha Andrabi of Dukhtaran e Millat was emboldened to
throw acid on girls daring to wear jeans. The State, such as it was,
abdicated its responsibility and watched helplessly. This is the
underlying cause of the present unrest -- neither the use of force by
security forces nor the so-called economic blockade.
The idea of Kashmiriyat today exists only in the minds of a lunatic
fringe of candle carrying peaceniks and in the studios of politically
correct television channels.
But it will be wrong on the part of the Indian State and even more for
the Kashmiris to think that they can repeat the shenanigans of the early
1990s.
Changed geopolitics
The world, specially the West, has changed radically since 1989-90. The
sole superpower was then in support of the Kashmiri cause, such as it
was. BBC, the paragon of Western objectivity, repeatedly showed a clip
of a toothless old Kashmiri woman shouting 'We want Sharia' in Kashmir.
The US was bent upon teaching a lesson to erstwhile Soviet allies like
India. Osama bin Laden was the blue-eyed boy of the Americans and
Mujahids (Muslim religious fighters) were still basking in the afterglow
of the victory over the Soviets in Afghanistan. The West had still to
learn the disaster that awaited it by patronising the Waahabi creed.
The attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, changed all that.
One wonders if the Kashmiri separatists have noticed the absence of any
comment from the West on the current happenings in Kashmir. Even the
Pakistanis appeared surprised, though delighted, by the present
happenings. The Pakistan Senate promptly passed a resolution condemning
'excessive' use of force by the Indians. It was comic since at that very
time Pakistan was using helicopter gunships and fighter aircraft against
its own tribals in the frontier area. The day the march to Muzaffarabad
took place, over 50 Shia Muslims were killed in an attack on a hospital
in Pakistan. Pakistanis were delighted that while Baluchistan and the
tribal areas were in open revolt against the federal authorities,
Kashmiris were clamouring to join them. Pakistanis were indeed grateful
that at least someone in world thought that they were not a failed State.
But despite some noises, even Pakistanis seemed aghast at the movement
in Kashmir. Thanks to the peace process and people to people contacts,
most Pakistanis now accept the secular credentials of India. The average
Pakistani is keen to establish trade, cultural and educational contacts
with India.
Is there a way forward?
The valley Kashmiris' outburst was and is like a reaction of a spoilt
child who revolts irrationally when denied his demands. The reaction in
Jammu was the first time ever that the valley people received a jolt. It
is noteworthy that the troubles in J&K, of the separatist variety, are
confined to Srinagar valley. It is the valley that is out of sync with
the region and the world. There is no hope of any support to the
irrational demands of a fundamentalist minority.
Neither the US nor UK wants another safe heaven for the Al Qaeda
[Images] to come up in the subcontinent. Even China, which faces Muslim
separatism, is wary. The Russians know what it is like to create another
Chechenya.
Kashmiri separatists are isolated from reality. India must sit tight and
not succumb to pressure tactics. After relative peace that Kashmir has
got used to, let there be a dose of unrest for the Kashmiri to come to
his collective senses.
Colonel Dr Anil Athale (retd) is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Fellow at the
United Services Institution, Delhi [Images], and coordinator of the
Pune-based Institute for Peace and Disarmament
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43770
RIGHTS-INDIA: Kashmiris See Power in Peaceful Protests
By Athar Parvaiz Bhat
Kashmiris at a peaceful protest demanding freedom from Indian rule.
Credit:Athar Parvaiz Bhatt/IPS
SRINAGAR, Sep 3 (IPS) - Firefights between India's armed forces and
separatist militants, a feature of life in Jammu and Kashmir state, have
now given way to a different type of confrontation -- paramilitary
troops facing mass protests by peaceful, unarmed demonstrators demanding
freedom.
Curiously, this non-violent uprising is appearing at a time when
political observers were beginning to write the obituary of the
long-standing freedom movement of the Kashmiris.
"In the last few years, the common people had started getting
disillusioned and the level of anger against India, as also the freedom
sentiment, had gone down to a certain extent, especially when compared
to the early 1990s when these were at their peak,’’ Gul Wani, who
teaches political science at Kashmir University, told IPS.
According to Wani, people had become disenchanted because of the
ideological differences among various separatist outfits grouped under
the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and neighbouring Pakistan's
preoccupation with its own domestic problems. "Since the separatist
groups were pulling in different directions, people had become
pessimistic about the resolution of the Kashmir issue," explains Wani.
Broadly, groups demanding secession fall into two groups: those
demanding an independent Kashmir, and those who advocate merger with
Pakistan.
Since the end of British rule over Indian sub-continent in 1947 and its
partition into the two sovereign countries of India and Pakistan, this
former princely state has been a bone of contention between the two
major South Asian neighbours. The two have fought three full-scale wars
in efforts to gain complete control over Kashmir. Presently, one-third
of the territory is administered by Pakistan and the rest by India.
Pakistan has officially declared its moral, political and diplomatic
support for the freedom struggle of Kashmiris. Of late, however, an
impression has gained ground that Pakistan is not paying too much heed
to the Kashmiri issue.
Kashmiris on the Indian side launched an armed struggle in 1989 to seek
independence which has, over the years, resulted in the deaths of more
than 68,000 people. The government of India maintains that the armed
struggle is backed and funded by Pakistan, which the latter denies.
Many observers believe that the violent struggle helped bring the
Kashmir issue to the world's attention. However, after the 9/11 events,
violent methods were beginning to look counterproductive and a debate
arose within Kashmiri civil society as to whether the armed struggle
should be replaced by a non-violent movement.
The current peaceful mass uprising appears to have provided the answer
to this debate. It has even impressed Syed Salahudeen who operates from
Muzzaffarabad in Pakistani Kashmir and heads the United Jihad Council, a
coalition of more than 14 armed groups active on the Indian side. "Since
the common people are protesting peacefully in favour of freedom, we are
terminating our operations in the civilian areas though our operations
will continue in the frontier areas,'' he said in a statement.
Salahudeen's own Hizbul Mujahideen is currently the most prominent
organisation supporting the state’s accession to Pakistan.
Mohammad Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
(JKLF), an active militant until he renounced violence in 1994, terms
the mass uprising a good omen for the Kashmir's freedom struggle.
"It is great to see people protesting in a peaceful manner in favour of
the freedom. It thrills me that the freedom sentiment is catching up
rapidly within Kashmir,'' Malik told IPS.
The JKLF has alternatively sought independence for Indian Kashmir as
well as the accession of the territory to Pakistan. Malik’s own
renouncement of violence and his alleged pursuit of an internal
settlement with the Indian government led to a split in the JKLF in
1994. A militant faction of the group is now active on the Pakistan side
of Kashmir and led by Amanullah Khan.
The younger generation in Kashmir is upbeat about the impact of peaceful
protests. Before the nine-day curfew -- lifted on Tuesday --was imposed,
to stop the massive public rallies, youngsters were prominently seen in
the processions, raising slogans in favour of freedom.
"We seek an end to the disputed nature of Kashmir. This will guarantee
us our secure future. We wonder why we are not allowed to exercise our
right to freedom,'' asserts Hilal Ahmad, a college student.
Hilal’s fellow students share this view. They assert that undemocratic
means of stifling the present uprising are not going to work. "I firmly
believe that force never serves to suppress a genuine movement. India
may have managed to silence these protests for the time being, but they
are bound to resurface regardless of the repression,'' affirmed Rayees
Ahmad, another college student.
People from among the older generation also say that they are fed up
with the uncertainty surrounding the Kashmir issue. "This time around,
we would seek a final solution, once and for all; it hardly matters if
our business suffers in the process," says Mohammad Sultan who has
reopened his bakery shop in the busy commercial area of Lal Chowk, after
the nine-day curfew.
At least 39 people were killed in the recent protests and several
hundreds injured before the government imposed the curfew which extended
over the whole of Kashmir.
What triggered the protests was the allotment of 100 acres of land to
the management of a Hindu shrine by the state government, two months
ago. The issue led to massive demonstrations by both Hindus and Muslims.
Hindus are concentrated in the Jammu region of the state while Muslims
dominate the Kashmir valley.
Ordinary people and separatist groups in Muslim-dominated Kashmir
opposed the land allotment, suspecting that it was aimed at reducing the
ratio of Muslims by settling Hindus from other states of India in the
valley.
Following weeks of persistent protests, the government, on Sunday,
agreed that Hindu pilgrims will only be allowed temporary use of land
near the famed Amarnath cave shrine and that no permanent structures
will be built there.
Separatist groups are, however, taking advantage of the renewed public
anger. "This is not only the issue of 100 acres of land; our original
demand is the demand for freedom... so our struggle for freedom will
continue,’’ says JKLF chief Malik.
Malik’s main complaint is that the people of the Kashmir valley and
their representatives are not being consulted on a resolution of the
Kashmir issue. "The fact remains that India and Pakistan are yet to give
Kashmiris the status of direct parties to the dispute. They have started
a peace process between themselves, but Kashmiris figure nowhere in that
peace process.’’
Wani said the Indian government ‘’initiated a dialogue with some
separatist groups in Kashmir, but it never made this dialogue serious
and result-oriented. Nothing came out of several rounds of talks and
this ultimately strengthened the hawkish voices in the separatist camp’’.
According to Wani the delays created doubts in the minds of common
people. ''They felt that the Indian government was simply buying time.
That is why we are now seeing people on the streets, seeking a solution
to Kashmir issue.’’
(END/2008)
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1835609,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Clashing Over Kashmir
By Madhur Singh Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008
Kashmiri Muslims protest against rule in Kashmir on August 22.
Tauseef Mustafa / AFP / Getty
"Azadi!" has been the cry across the stunningly beautiful Kashmir Valley
for two weeks now. Shouting the word for "freedom," hundreds of
thousands of Kashmiris have been marching to demand liberty from India.
Schools and businesses across the region have been closed, as the
central government in New Delhi has mobilized thousands of troops into
the area to assert its control. So far, at least 23 people have been
killed and 500 injured in clashes with Indian security forces. A
three-day respite to allow locals to stock on essentials ended on Aug.
22 with a resumption of protests and hundreds of thousands drove or
marched on foot through the provincial capital Srinagar shouting
anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans. Some were waving Pakistani flags,
as people lining the roadsides offered them refreshments and
encouragement. On Aug. 24, two leading separatist leaders were arrested
by Indian police on the eve of more demonstrations.
The scenes were painfully reminiscent of the worst days of the
insurgency, which has raged for two decades and has witnessed the deaths
of as many as 11,000 people as bands of Islamist guerrillas, encouraged
by Pakistan, fought Indian troops. That crisis, which at many points
brought New Delhi and Islamabad to the brink of war, had seemed to pass
as the 21st Century took hold. But the old embers of discontent
remained, indeed almost structurally preserved by the very way Kashmir
is governed. It is part of a single Indian state called Jammu and
Kashmir (J&K), where Jammu is a majority Hindu area which waters down
the numbers of Kashmir's majority Muslims. And so, it took just one
spark for the old fire to come roaring back.
The Valley had been on edge since June this year over the local
government's move to "divert" 100 acres of land to a trust managing a
Hindu pilgrimage. Muslim protests led the provincial government to
rescind its order. That decision, however, infuriated Hindus, who
blocked the highway to Srinagar, which while less than successful as an
economic weapon led to the Muslims of the Kashmir Valley exploding in
anti-India protest. Kashmiris saw the blockade as a symbol of Hindu
India's willful ability to hold Muslim Kashmir in a vise. "The blockade
was made out to be much worse than it probably was," says Navneeta
Chadha Behera, author of Demystifying Kashmir. "In effect it was like a
psychological war. A fear psychosis was created where people panicked
about shortage of medicines and milk for children, about truckloads of
apples rotting. How much was fact and how much rumor, no one knows."
The depth of Kashmiri anger, however, runs deep. For two decades,
Kashmiris have lived in one of the most militarized regions of the
world, with 800,000 troops stationed in the 15,520 sq km (5,992 sq mile)
Kashmir Valley and operating under laws that give them impunity from
prosecution. Charges of extrajudicial killings, rapes, abductions and
torture were leveled against them with chilling regularity during the
1990s. The Indian government has consistently denied Kashmiri calls to
demilitarize, saying the terror infrastructure across the border in
Pakistan has yet to be dismantled. Resentment continues to simmer over
the "disappearance" of more than 8,000 Kashmiris during the insurgency.
Human rights organizations claim the missing were killed by security
forces. Kashmiri demands for greater cross-border travel and trade
relations with Pakistan have also seen slow progress due to continuing
distrust between the two countries. Meanwhile, Kashmiri aspirations for
greater autonomy have also remained largely unrealized. That has been
particularly galling because Kashmir acceded to India in the 1947
partition of British India into Pakistan and India based on carefully
negotiated terms giving the region the right to self-governance on all
issues except foreign relations, communication and defense.
The chaos has enveloped the Jammu side of the province. Since the
government rescinded its diversion of land, the Hindu-dominated area of
the state has seen widespread protests, in which at least 10 people have
lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands have protested what they say is
the special treatment given to the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. While
J&K receives the highest per capita financial assistance from the
federal government in New Delhi, they claim, most of those resources are
channeled into the Valley. They point out that J&K is the only state
with its own constitution and with a special status in the Indian
constitution, where outsiders cannot buy land and whose demographic
balance — roughly 70% Muslim and 30% Hindu — that is is solicitously
protected.
New Delhi thus has two political fronts to deal with, one Muslim and one
Hindu. Any concessions it might offer to those protesting in Srinagar
will provide fodder to the equally vociferous protesters in Jammu.
What's more, the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party has taken the
issue beyond the state of J&K into the rest of India, and seems set to
make it an election issue during the general elections expected at the
beginning of next year. Due to the protests, the state elections have
been put off until next year.
The problem of separatism is completely different. "The only solution is
to get people back on the table to talk," says A.S. Dullat, a former
chief of India's external intelligence agency, the R&AW, and a former
incharge of Kashmir affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, "But for
that they need to wait for passions to cool." With general elections
round the corner, the talks are more likely to be an exercise to buy
time than to find a meaningful solution. Chadha Behera says the
separatists themselves are to blame for the deadlock with New Delhi:
"They themselves are not agreed on whether they want freedom or merger
with Pakistan." Furthermore, she says, they are inflexible. "They won't
give up their personal security but will demand troops be removed from
the valley."
While opinion columns in Indian newspapers have, rather remarkedly, for
the first time started talking of letting Kashmir have independence, the
fact remains that no government facing an election is likely to take any
hard decision on Kashmir. For the moment, the situation looks likely to
fester.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1829965,00.html
A Perilous Religious Game in Kashmir
By Madhur Singh / New Delhi Wednesday, Aug. 06, 2008
Indian Hindu devotees ride horses past a soldier on their way to the
holy Amarnath Cave.
Narinder Nanu / AFP / Getty
High up in the stunning Kashmir Valley lies a natural cave called
Amarnath, where stalagmites form during the summer months. Devout Hindus
believe this cave to be one of the holiest sites of their religion, and
that the largest of the ice formations is a Shiva Lingam, the symbol of
Lord Shiva. Hindu mythology has it that Shiva — the destroyer in the
Hindu Trinity that includes Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver
— imparted the secrets of creation to his consort, Parvati, in Amarnath.
Each year, during the months of July and August, hundreds of thousands
of Hindu pilgrims from across India and abroad take an arduous five-day,
40-mile trek to worship at this cave.
The only trouble at the cave used to be that the Shiva Lingam would melt
before the greater part of the throngs could arrive to pay obeisance
(The stalagmite does wax and wane with the seasons but some blame
premature melting on global warming, others on heightened human activity
near the shrine). However, for more than two months now, this small, 150
ft high and 90 ft long cave has been the center of a raging communal and
political storm in the state of Jammu and Kashmir — one that has divided
the Hindu and Muslim populations of the state. Now, the Hindu rightwing
Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to make it a major issue leading up to
the general elections next year, with potentially explosive results.
The cave is a gigantic challenge to managing the logistics of the
pilgrimage — not only is it perched 4,000 meters (12,000 ft) above sea
level where rain, snow and landslides are common, it is also plunk in
the middle of the insurgency-ravaged Kashmir Valley. And with ever
greater numbers of pilgrims coming in (so far this year, over 500,000
pilgrims have already visited) the government reasoned that more
temporary shelters were required. And so on May 26 the ruling
Congress-led government of Jammu and Kashmir decided to divert 100 acres
of forest land to erect such facilities for Hindu pilgrims.
Muslim hardliners complained vehemently against what they alleged was an
attempt to create "Israel-like" settlements of Hindus to change the
demography of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. (It would be a
daunting feat for even the most fanatical of such alleged settlers — the
area is uninhabitable for much ofthe year.) But once the fears spread,
protests in Kashmir grew. The government eventually backed down and
revoked the shelter order on July 1. That, in turn, led to a backlash
from Hindus in the Hindu-majority Jammu region of the state, with
right-wing parties including the BJP jumping in to protest against what
they alleged was capitulation to "Muslim separatists."
Since then, protests have engulfed many parts of the state, with
demonstrators clashing with the police in what many say is the largest
mass agitation in the state since the 1990s, when the insurgency was
raging. This week, at least three protestors have been killed and scores
injured. On Tuesday, Hindu protesters blocked traffic on the main
highway, leaving the Valley short of food, fuel and medical supplies,
and leaving Kashmiri fruit-growers seeing their produce rotting instead
of heading for markets in the rest of India.
The situation has come as a political bonanza for the BJP. In the last
state elections in 2002, it had been wiped out in its stronghold of
Jammu by the Congress Party. It has since been quick to grab the
opportunity to both incite and tap Hindu anger. To many, it is
reminiscent of the party's actions in Ayodhya in the late 1980s and
early 1990s. The Hindu hardline party first shot to national prominence
in the 1990s after it led public heated public demonstrations over a
16th century mosque in the north Indian town of Ayodhya, which they
insisted was the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram. Those demonstrations
led to the worst outbreak of sectarian violence since the 1947 Partition
that created India and Pakistan. The party has been at the forefront of
Amarnath controversy in Jammu, and with its announcement that it will
undertake nationwide strikes over the issue, it is set to make Shiva's
cave a presence in the general elections.
Ironically, the Amarnath cave has long been one of many symbols of
Hindu-Muslim camaraderie. Legend has it that the cave was discovered by
a Muslim shepherd, and Muslim vendors benefited from the religious
tourism for years until 2000, when the cave was put under the authority
of the government-run Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, the agency in charge
of the shelters for pilgrims. Now, commentators see political
opportunism at work across the political spectrum, not just the BJP. The
move by the state's Congress government to allot 100 acres of forest
land to the SASB, just months before elections due in October, was seen
by many as aimed at attracting Hindu votes in the Hindu-majority Jammu
part of the state. It clearly did not foresee the backlash. Meanwhile,
the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of secessionist leaders
and parties, has announced a campaign to boycott the forthcoming state
elections.
Manoj Joshi, author of Lost Rebellion: Kashmir in the 1990s, says all
parties are equally to blame for dividing the state along religious
lines. "And by blockading the Valley, they [Hindu hardliners] are making
the Muslims more insecure and making them lean towards Pakistan." Joshi
says, "It is a very dangerous game. One wonders how far they can go on
playing with national interest."
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