Strike cripples Jammu and Kashmir

Srinagar : A massive pro-independence strike brought Indian Kashmir to a halt yesterday, a day after a huge separatist rally in the revolt-hit region where 15 people were killed in a border gunbattle.

In Jammu, meanwhile, as state officials and Hindu groups held talks to lower tensions, fresh clashes erupted yesterday between stone-pelting Muslims and Hindus, forcing imposition of a curfew.

The strike was the latest in a string of shutdowns and demonstrations called by separatists in the scenic region.

"The strike is part of continuing protests against India's rule in Kashmir," said leading separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is chief priest at the region's main mosque.

"It is also to demand our right to self-determination through a referendum," he said in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir where a revolt has raged against New Delhi's rule since 1989.

Shops, schools, banks and businesses in Srinagar remained closed for a second day running. There were similar shutdowns in other towns in the Kashmir valley.

The strike is set to continue until tomorrow, when separatists plan to hold a protest sit-in at Lal Chowk, the heart of Srinagar.

Meanwhile, the death toll from an overnight gunbattle with militants near the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan rose to 15, the army said.

"The fighting that is still raging has so far left 12 militants and three soldiers dead, including a colonel," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Anil Kumar Mathur said. He said three soldiers were critically wounded during the gunbattle, the fiercest this year in Kashmir.

Talks

The trouble was triggered by a state government plan announced in June to donate land to a Hindu shrine trust in the Kashmir valley. The decision was later reversed, angering Hindus. A solution to the festering Amarnath land row seemed to be in sight after a government panel and agitators in Jammu yesterday discussed the use of controversial 40 hectares of land during the Hindu pilgrimage season.

During the second round of talks between Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti (SASS) and Governor N.N. Vohra's panel that lasted for about one and a half hours yesterday afternoon, the focus was on the diversion of the piece of land at Baltal in north Kashmir for about three months.

According to sources, both the sides have made a "substantial progress" in resolving the Amarnath land row issue at the end of the second round of talks.

The third round of talks would be held in the evening. Though the government remained tight-lipped over the nature of the progress on the issue, SASS spokesperson Suchet Singh said the talks were "fruitful and productive."

"We are progressing," he told waiting reporters.

Informed sources said the government was willing to give 40 hectares of land in north Kashmir to the shrine board for use during the pilgrimage period of two or three months.

The issue as to how it would be done was being sorted out.

SASS leaders have discussed the matters with their experts to get legal definition of the diversion of the land to the shrine board in a more specific and firm manner.

According to sources from both sides, they were inching towards a solution that would help in normalising the situation in Jammu region, where an agitation for the restoration of the land to the shrine board has been going on for almost two and a half months.

"We have exchanged constructive views with each other and will meet again," the governor's adviser S.S. Bloeria, who led the four-member government committee, told reporters after the first round of talks in the morning.

SASS leaders said the talks were held in a "cordial atmosphere."

"The dialogue shall succeed," SASS spokesperson Tilak Raj Sharma said.