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| India-Pakistan |
| Kashmir police use tear gas to break up Eid protests |
| 2009-09-22 |
| [Dawn] Riot police in Kashmir used tear gas Monday to disperse hundreds of anti-India protesters on Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic festival marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Riot police in the summer capital Srinagar fired volleys of tear gas shells at Muslim demonstrators chanting 'We want freedom' and 'Allah is greater', an AFP correspondent saw. The crowd tried to march to the residence of hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, who is under house arrest. They retaliated against the police with stone pelting and over 25 people, including four policemen, were injured in ensuing clashes, a police officer said, refusing to be named. Several thousand Muslims, including women and children, gathered to offer Eid prayers inside a ground near the 'martyrs graveyard' in Srinagar where many of those killed in the 20-year-old insurgency against Indian rule in the Muslim-majority region are buried. The region's main moderate separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, used the occasion to urge New Delhi to resolve the long-standing dispute over Kashmiri sovereignty. Farooq accused New Delhi of being 'stubborn' and warned that peace in the sub-continent could only be achieved by "resolving the core issue of Kashmir". Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both. The dispute has triggered two wars between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals. Separatist groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir are divided between those who favour accession to Pakistan and those demanding Kashmiri independence. Late Sunday police released five senior separatists, including Aasiya Andrabi, the head of region's leading women separatist group. 'The five were set free on the orders of the chief minister,' an official spokesman said, adding it was to allow the separatists to celebrate Eid with their families. However, senior separatist Shabir Shah continues is still in detention since being arrested in June for leading anti-India rallies. Indian troops shot dead two militants overnight in northern Kupwara district, bordering Pakistan-ruled Kashmir. In southern Kulgam district, suspected militants shot dead a 24-year-old woman and wounded her 16-year-old sister, police said. |
| Posted by:Fred |