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India deploys thousands more troops to Jammu
The Indian army is deploying around 10,000 additional soldiers in Kashmir to quell weeks of protests over land for a Hindu shrine that had sparked some of the state's worst religious riots in two decades.The troops will be deployed around Jammu, a Hindu-dominated region in Muslim-majority Indian-held Kashmir where thousands of people have been protesting to demand the transfer of about 100 acres of land to a Hindu shrine trust. The dispute began after the Kashmiri government had promised to give forestland to the trust that runs Amarnath, a cave shrine visited by Hindu pilgrims. Many Muslims were enraged. The government then backed down on its decision. Many Hindus, in turn, were angered. "This troop strength is in addition to large contingents of paramilitary forces and police already deployed to contain the unrest," a senior army officer told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Jammu has been under curfew for most of the week, leading to shortages of basic supplies from food to medicine. "We can't understand what logic government has in continuing with this curfew when they have failed to contain the protests," said Virender Sethi, a shop worker. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held an emergency meeting with political leaders on Wednesday to defuse the row. While all parties agreed for the need to restore peace in the region, the talks produced little concrete results. Malik: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Muhammad Yasin Malik, who is on a hunger strike to protest attacks on Muslims and the economic blockade of the valley by Hindu protesters, was taken to a hospital in Srinagar on Thursday after he lost consciousness, police said. Malik began his hunger strike on Tuesday. Posted by: Fred 2008-08-08 |
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