Kashmiris protest transfer of land to Hindu shrine in Indian Kashmir; 1 dead

The Associated Press , Srinagar, India | Tue, 06/24/2008 9:22 PM | World

Hundreds of Kashmiris attacked government offices and a police post in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday to protest the killing of a local resident by police during demonstrations against the transfer of forest land to a Hindu shrine in the Muslim-majority region, police said.

At least 15 protesters were injured when police beat them with wooden sticks after they stoned government offices and damaged several vehicles in Ganderbal, a small town 12 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of Srinagar, the main city in India's portion of Kashmir, said Abdul Majid, the local administrator.

Also Tuesday, officers fired shots in the air to disperse the demonstrators after they demolished a police post in Srinagar and set a fire truck ablaze, said Afadul Mujtaba, a senior police officer.

The protesters took to the streets after a 37-year-old man who had been shot by police at the rally a day earlier died of his wounds.

Monday's demonstrations had been to protest the allotment of 99 acres (40 hectares) of land by the state government to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running a popular Hindu shrine.

The protesters chanted "We want our land back" and carried placards reading, "We want independence from India."

Eighteen other people were injured in Monday's protests as police used live ammunition, tear gas and bamboo rods to disperse the demonstrators, Mujtaba said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties Tuesday.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the head of an umbrella group of separatist political parties, accused the Indian government of planning to build Hindu settlements in India's only Muslim majority state to change the demographic balance in the region.

He led Monday's protest.

The Amarnath shrine is a cave that houses a large icicle revered by Hindus as an incarnation of the Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus, who consider the cave sacred, are currently visiting the cave on an annual pilgrimage.

Thousands of soldiers have been deployed along the pilgrims' route.

Islamic separatists have targeted the pilgrimage in the past, charging that Hindu-majority India uses the annual religious event as a political statement to bolster its claim over the Himalayan region, which is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed by both.

About a dozen militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for the independence of Kashmir or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. At least 68,000 people have been killed in the conflict. (****)

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