The Associated Press
Friday, August 29, 2008
SRINAGAR, India: Streets were deserted Friday as thousands of police and paramilitary troops patrolled and a curfew in Indian Kashmir entered a sixth day.
Two months of angry protests have left at least 42 people dead, most of them killed as soldiers opened fire on Muslim protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region. The violence is the worst to hit Kashmir in more than a decade.
Authorities allowed small breaks in the curfew Thursday to let people buy food, medicines and other essential supplies. On Friday, the day Muslims usually congregate to pray together, the curfew was relaxed briefly in the evening. Police vehicles drove through neighborhoods announcing a two-hour break.
Mosques have been at the heart of several protests in the region. In Srinagar, the largest city in the region, the chief priest of the main Jamia Mosque was put under house arrest Friday, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with media.
Authorities also arrested senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah, the area's top police official S.M. Sahai said, citing a "breach of peace" as the reason for the arrest. He gave no other details.
Last Friday hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Srinagar in the largest gathering in the region in nearly two decades, pressing their demands for independence from India.
Fearing more angry protests ahead of a rally called by separatist leaders, the state government imposed a curfew Sunday across the Muslim-majority areas of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
The crisis began in June when Muslims launched protests over a government plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir. The plan was quickly scrapped, angering the region's Hindu minority, but the Muslim protests have snowballed into a broader anti-India movement.
Indian officials have voiced fears that Islamic militants based in Pakistan — which controls about a third of divided Kashmir — could use the unrest to sneak across the heavily fortified frontier that bisects the region.
On Thursday government forces ended a hostage crisis in the mainly Hindu city of Jammu in Indian Kashmir when they killed the last of three rebels believed to have seized eight people, army officials said. Two hostages died in the gunbattle, along with the three militants.
There was no comment from rebel groups about the gunbattle.
On Thursday the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged thorough investigations into the killings that have occurred in the unrest. It also called on Indian authorities to respect the people's right to protest peacefully and "comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators."
India reacted angrily calling the statement "uncalled for and irresponsible."
"India does not need any advice in respect of the protection and promotion of the human rights of its citizens," a spokesman for India's ministry of external affairs said late Thursday.
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. Both countries continue to claim Kashmir in its entirety.
Separatist movements in Indian Kashmir remained peaceful until 1989, when Islamic insurgents took up arms hoping to win independence for the territory or see it merged with Pakistan.
The fighting has killed an estimated 68,000 people.
Until the latest unrest, violence had ebbed considerably in the past four years with India and Pakistan holding peace talks.
Friday, August 29, 2008
SRINAGAR, India: Streets were deserted Friday as thousands of police and paramilitary troops patrolled and a curfew in Indian Kashmir entered a sixth day.
Two months of angry protests have left at least 42 people dead, most of them killed as soldiers opened fire on Muslim protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region. The violence is the worst to hit Kashmir in more than a decade.
Authorities allowed small breaks in the curfew Thursday to let people buy food, medicines and other essential supplies. On Friday, the day Muslims usually congregate to pray together, the curfew was relaxed briefly in the evening. Police vehicles drove through neighborhoods announcing a two-hour break.
Mosques have been at the heart of several protests in the region. In Srinagar, the largest city in the region, the chief priest of the main Jamia Mosque was put under house arrest Friday, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with media.
Authorities also arrested senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah, the area's top police official S.M. Sahai said, citing a "breach of peace" as the reason for the arrest. He gave no other details.
Last Friday hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Srinagar in the largest gathering in the region in nearly two decades, pressing their demands for independence from India.
Fearing more angry protests ahead of a rally called by separatist leaders, the state government imposed a curfew Sunday across the Muslim-majority areas of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
The crisis began in June when Muslims launched protests over a government plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir. The plan was quickly scrapped, angering the region's Hindu minority, but the Muslim protests have snowballed into a broader anti-India movement.
Indian officials have voiced fears that Islamic militants based in Pakistan — which controls about a third of divided Kashmir — could use the unrest to sneak across the heavily fortified frontier that bisects the region.
On Thursday government forces ended a hostage crisis in the mainly Hindu city of Jammu in Indian Kashmir when they killed the last of three rebels believed to have seized eight people, army officials said. Two hostages died in the gunbattle, along with the three militants.
There was no comment from rebel groups about the gunbattle.
On Thursday the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged thorough investigations into the killings that have occurred in the unrest. It also called on Indian authorities to respect the people's right to protest peacefully and "comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators."
India reacted angrily calling the statement "uncalled for and irresponsible."
"India does not need any advice in respect of the protection and promotion of the human rights of its citizens," a spokesman for India's ministry of external affairs said late Thursday.
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. Both countries continue to claim Kashmir in its entirety.
Separatist movements in Indian Kashmir remained peaceful until 1989, when Islamic insurgents took up arms hoping to win independence for the territory or see it merged with Pakistan.
The fighting has killed an estimated 68,000 people.
Until the latest unrest, violence had ebbed considerably in the past four years with India and Pakistan holding peace talks.
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