World | India
Protests continue in Indian Kashmir
Police used batons in an attempt to clear protesters from the streets of Indian Kashmir on Monday, the eighth day of rioting against what critics call a government plan to build Hindu settlements in the Muslim-majority region.
- AP
- Published: 13:45 June 30, 2008
Srinagar: Police used batons in an attempt to clear protesters from the streets of Indian Kashmir on Monday, the eighth day of rioting against what critics call a government plan to build Hindu settlements in the Muslim-majority region.
But the thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers patrolling the streets in cities across most of Jammu-Kashmir state had little success in damping the protests, with businesses, shops and schools remaining closed.
Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, said nearly 300 protesters took to the streets in downtown Srinagar, the state's main city, and clashed with police.
Over the past week, police have used live ammunition, tear gas and bamboo batons to disperse the crowds. At least four people have been killed and hundreds more wounded, said Tripathi.
Protesters have burned vehicles and tires, blocked roads and marched in what have become some of the largest protests against Indian rule since a separatist rebellion
broke out in the Himalayan region nearly two decades ago.
The protests were sparked by the recent transfer of 99 acres of land by the state government to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running a Hindu shrine, to build facilities for the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who flock there every year.
The pilgrims come to see a large icicle in a cave that devout Hindus revere as an incarnation of the Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.
Protesters believe Indian authorities plan to turn the structures into a permanent settlement for Hindus to change the religious balance in the Muslim-majority region.
Indian officials dismiss 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.
On Sunday, the state's top elected official said authorities would revoke the controversial land transfer in the next cabinet meeting. But Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad did not say when the meeting would be held.
Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, head of the moderate faction of the separatist alliance All Parties Hurriyat Conference, said the protests would continue "until we see the revocation order in writing."
Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed by both. About a dozen militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. At least 68,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
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