Thousands Take Streets In Anti-India Protest In Kashmir

Shravan Krushna Pratipada

Kashmiri Separatists in anti-India protests

Srinagar (J&K): Tens of thousands of people marched in Indian-occupied Kashmir on Saturday, shouting freedom slogans and mourning the death of prominent separatist leader killed in by police in violent protests over a land row.

Many Muslims were seen protesting with Islamic green flags and gathering in a hometown of Sheikh Aziz, a senior Kashmiri separatist leader, who was killed along with 21 other protesters in police firing during huge demonstrations this week.

Dozens on people filled the streets with cars, buses, jeeps and trucks heading towards Pampore, Aziz’s hometown located just outside the main city Srinagar.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz was a leader of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, which is considered as Kashmir’s main separatist alliance.

Police opened fire into a crowd on Monday after they tried to stop the Muslim protesters during one of the biggest demonstrations after the separatists have been revolting against the government in the region for 20 years ago.

The transfer of land to a Hindu pilgrim group has slowly turned in to the anti-India protests in Indian-administered Kashmir as the authorities had decided to allot the plot of land to a Hindu pilgrim body in the Muslim-majority region.

The 8-year-old Hindu pilgrim group, Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, manages the yearly Hindu pilgrimage to Amarnath cave shrine in Kashmir.

The allotted forest land would allow the pilgrim group to expand the Hindu shrine along with other facilities around it, providing more than 400,000 Hindu pilgrims to temporarily settle down in the region.

But after experiencing deadliest clashes in the region, the authorities in Kashmir has decided to stop the transfer of land to a Hindu pilgrim group.

A key Kashmiri separatist group has accused the state government for trying to change the demography of the Muslim-dominated region and they had warned that the step may lead to a huge unrest.

In 1989, similar anti-India demonstrations were reported after the region experienced an increase in separatist insurgency.

Kashmir, which is at the foothills of the Himalayan region, is partly occupied by Pakistan and the rest by India.

The region have had Islamic separatist groups fighting for the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir from India or its merger with Pakistan since two decades.

The insurgency has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people.

Source: AllHeadlineNews.com