Police tear-gas Kashmir protesters

Srinagar: Police fired tear gas as dozens of separatists threw stones and smashed cars during a strike yesterday in Jammu and Kashmir to mark the execution of an independence leader 24 years ago.

Nearly 100 Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) activists marched through Srinagar, the main city in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, chanting, "We want independence from India." Trouble began when police stopped protesters from delivering a petition to the local United Nations office and arrested 30 people, said police officer Parwaiz Ahmad. Protesters started to throw stones at police and passing cars, and police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, Ahmad said. No casualties were reported.

Interred in Tihar jail

The petition was to demand the remains of the separatist group's founder, Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, be returned to his family for burial in Kashmir. Bhat's remains are interred in New Delhi's high security Tihar Jail where he was hanged in 1984 for conspiring to kill Ravindra Mhatre, the Indian consul in Birmingham, Britain.

Bhat's family has asked the Indian government several times for his remains, but has always been refused.

The government has never given an official reason, but it likely fears the creation of a martyr's shrine to Bhat.

"Bhat was the champion of Kashmir's independence," said Maulana Abbas Ansari, a senior leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), saying that denying Bhat a proper burial was hurting all of Kashmir.

JKLF calls a general strike every February 11 to mark the anniversary of Bhat's hanging, with the support of APHC.