Police fire at Kashmir Hindu protesters

Srinagar: Indian police fired at Hindu nationalists protesting a government decision to revoke a transfer of land to a revered Hindu shrine in Muslim-majority Kashmir, a senior officer said.

At least three people were injured in the violence yesterday.

Police used live ammunition as the supporters of a leading Hindu nationalist party threw rocks and forced shops, businesses and schools to close for a second day in Jammu, a predominantly Hindu area in India's mainly Muslim Jammu and Kashmir state, said Kondaveeti Rajendra, the area's police chief.

The injured were being treated in a local hospital, he said.

The government's handling of the land near the shrine has angered both Hindus and Muslims and sparked nine consecutive days of protests. At least four people have been killed and hundreds more wounded during the demonstrations.

The unrest began two weeks ago when the state government transferred 40 hectares of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running a Hindu shrine.

Muslim leaders led mass protests denouncing the move as a plot to build Hindu settlements in the area and alter the demographics in the Muslim-majority region.

Allegations

Indian officials have dismissed the allegations, saying India has never tried to encourage Hindu migration to the region, India's only Muslim-majority state. The Indian Constitution also prohibits outsiders from buying land in Kashmir.

Earlier this week, authorities reversed their decision and said they would not transfer the land to the shrine.

That sparked a new round of protests, this time by Hindu nationalists, who clashed with police yesterday in Jammu.

The pilgrims who flock to the shrine at the heart of the controversy come to see a large icicle in a cave that devout Hindus revere as an incarnation of the Lord Shiva, the Hindu deity of destruction and regeneration.

In an attempt to quash Muslim protests, authorities yesterday detained five separatist leaders who had planned a march in Srinagar, the key city in Kashmir.

The five separatist leaders - Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Bilal Lone and Ashraf Sehrai - planned to lead supporters to the central mosque in Srinagar, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to reporters.

Police put them under house arrest, the officer said.