WORLD> Asia-Pacific
|
WORLD> Asia-Pacific
|
|
Curfew shuts down uneasy Indian Kashmir
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-26 16:08 Kashmir's crisis began in June when Muslims launched protests complaining that a government decision to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir was actually a settlement plan meant to alter the religious balance in the region. After the plan was rescinded, Hindus took to the streets of Jammu, a predominantly Hindu city, demanding it be restored. The unrest has unleashed pent-up tensions between Kashmir's Muslims and Hindus and has threatened to snap the bonds between India and its only Muslim-majority state. There was more unrest Monday in Jammu, where police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of stone-throwing Hindu protesters, police said. At least three prominent separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, and Mohammed Yasin Malik were arrested Monday, police said. Three militants allegedly opened fire as they sneaked into Indian Kashmir across the heavily guarded Pakistani border late Monday night, sparking a manhunt operation in the area near Jammu, said local police official Manohar Singh. Police officials have been on guard for rebels looking to strike to exploit the unrest in Kashmir, Singh said. Kashmir has been divided between Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan since 1947 when the two fought their first war over the region in the aftermath of Britain's bloody partition of the subcontinent. Both countries continue to claim Kashmir in its entirety. Separatist movements were mostly peaceful until the start of an Islamic insurgency in 1989. The rebels want to see India's part of the region merged with Pakistan or given independence. At least 68,000 people have been killed in the fighting. |
