| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| 24 civilians, 11 troops injured in Kashmir clashes |
| 2008-09-09 |
| At least 24 protestors and 11 troops were injured in Indian-held Kashmir when troops used force to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting elections due in October, police and doctors said on Monday Police fired rubber bullets, live ammunition and lobbed tear gas to quell the protestors. Shops, banks and government offices were closed for the day, and public and private vehicles stayed off the roads across much of the region in response to a strike called by Muslim separatists protesting Indian rule in Kashmir. Central Reserve Police Force spokesman Prabhakar Tripathi said protesters had clashed with paramilitary forces at three places in Srinagar, adding that troops fired live ammunition in some places. Protestors pelted stones at paramilitary soldiers, and injured 11. Doctors in at least three Srinagar hospitals and police said at least 24 protesters were injured, some with bullet wounds. The Jammu-Kashmir Co-ordination Committee (JKCC) called Monday's strike. "The strike is to denounce the holding of a meeting by India's Election Commission in New Delhi," the JKCC said in a statement. In the past, militants have threatened to kill voters if they cast ballots in polls. During the last state elections in 2002, nearly 850 people were killed. Many victims were party workers and around 50 were politicians. Syed Ali Shah Gilani, a key pro-Pakistan leader, also warned the Indian government against holding state legislative elections in the region, which are due in October. "If New Delhi goes ahead with the elections, it will add fuel to the fire in Kashmir," said Gilani. Gilani's comments came as the Indian Election Commission began consulting various political groups to set a date for the election. Gilani and two other separatist leaders, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, have been put under house arrest by Indian authorities since Friday to prevent them from leading protest marches. On Monday, Farooq told reporters that India was pursuing a "policy of force, intimidation and terror to subjugate" people in Kashmir. "When you are making peaceful revolution impossible, you're making violent revolution inevitable." Farooq also demanded that the Indian allow cross-border trade between Indian-held Kashmir and Azad Kashmir. "India should open the cross border road for trade and people, or entirely close it. We're determined to see it as an alternate route, not yet another symbolic move." |
| Posted by:Fred |