SRINAGAR: The Kashmir unrest on the allotment of forestland to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) by the state government refuses to die down, even as government attempted to defuse the situation by announcing the takeover of the management of the annual pilgrimage to the Hindu cave shrine in the Himalayas.
As many as 30 people were hurt yesterday in fresh clashes in Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir as protesters demanded the formal revocation of an order to hand over land to a Hindu pilgrim body.
The protests continued despite a promise by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday that his Cabinet would scrap the plan to allow a Hindu trust to build accommodation for visitors to a Hindu shrine.
“Some 25 protesters and five policemen were hurt during yesterday’s clashes,” police officer Javed Ahmed said. The state government said on Sunday it would take charge of logistics for a major annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountain grotto, effectively revoking the land transfer.
Reacting to the decision, angry supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party went berserk and burned effigies of Azad, blocked roads and forced shops, businesses and schools to close for the day in parts of Jammu, said Kondaveeti Rajendra, the area’s police chief.
The tension continued unabated across the valley, where a total shutdown crippled life for the eighth day straight. Intensified patrolling by police and paramilitary not withstanding, senior separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani led a massive demonstration yesterday afternoon through the entire old city, with the processionists chanting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans.
Another procession was led by Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq which had its destination the home of the 25-year old youth, Imtiyaz Ahmad Haroon who succumbed to injuries he had received in paramilitary firing here last week during the protests.
In his brief address, the Mirwaiz announced the continuation of the ongoing protests till the order annulling allotment of land to the SASB was issued in black and white and produced before the public.
There were reports of protest demonstrations in other district headquarters yesterday. In downtown Srinagar yesterday, thousands of angry protesters marched through streets littered with bricks and stones hurled by demonstrators shouting “We want freedom” and “Indians leave Kashmir.” Police used batons and tear gas to disperse protesters in three places in Srinagar, police and residents said.
In northern Baramulla district, police fired into the air and used batons to ward off hundreds of protesters who attacked a police station, police said.
The state administration is bracing up for the call given by the separatists asking people to converge today at the historic grand mosque in the old city to register their protest against the allotment.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Gov. N.N. Vohra has set a deadline of July 7, for Azad to prove his majority in the 87 member state assembly. Azad government was reduced to a minority after the withdrawal of support by the key ally, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 78-month-long coalition which has 19 members in the assembly.
Responding to a letter by the chief minister on the issue, the governor in a communication to Azad asked him to “prove majority on the floor of the house on any date not later than July 7, 2008, in keeping with established conventions of parliamentary democracy.”
Azad has been on record saying that he has the required numbers in the state assembly to prove the majority. He expressed confidence that his government would run full term of six years. The protests have evoked memories of the widespread anti-India protests that swept the region after a separatist insurgency broke out in 1989.
