Indian Kashmir revokes decision to hand over land to Hindus
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) — Indian Kashmir formally revoked Tuesday a decision to hand over land to Hindu pilgrims after days of violent protests that left five dead and nearly 350 injured in the Muslim region.
A 70-year old Muslim died in police action in the central Kashmir district of Budgam hours before the order was rescinded Tuesday, police said.
Jubilant Muslim crowds burst crackers in summer capital Srinagar to welcome the news, but the government's decision to revoke the plan angered Hindus concentrated in the southern part of the region.
There were angry clashes on Tuesday between police and Hindu demonstrators in the winter capital Jammu prompting authorities to impose a curfew in some areas, police said, adding protesters also set fire to a police booth.
The decision was taken by the state cabinet which met in Srinagar, summer capital of the scenic Himalayan state where a bloody revolt has raged against Indian rule for nearly two decades.
The government order "is hereby cancelled," an official statement said.
The statement said the state government had taken charge of logistics for a major annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountain grotto, scrapping a move to allocate land to a trust.
That decision provoked the riots in and around Srinagar.
Revocation of the order came as top separatists were placed under house arrest by police in a bid to avert more protests and a strike shut shops, schools, banks and post offices for a ninth day here.
The entire separatist political leadership was under house arrest, except for hardliner Syed Ali Geelani who managed to evade police, officer Pervez Ahmed said.
Geelani later emerged at the region's main mosque in Srinagar and led tens of thousands of Muslims in an anti-India demonstration.
The protests had continued despite a weekend promise by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad that his cabinet would scrap the plan to allow a Hindu trust to build accommodation for visitors to a Hindu shrine.
Residents said police and paramilitary officers were enforcing an "undeclared" curfew in most parts of Srinagar.
"It is people's victory," said chief priest and moderate separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who urged people to end protests.
The government's move last month to provide land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, prompted huge protests and violent clashes across the Kashmir valley.
The protests have evoked memories of the widespread anti-India protests that swept the region after a separatist insurgency broke out in 1989.
Separatists charge the land transfer was a ploy to settle Indian Hindus in Kashmir. But officials dismiss the allegations, saying New Delhi has never tried to encourage Hindu migration to the Himalayan region.
Kashmir is in the grip of an 18-year old insurgency that has so far left more than 43,000 people dead.
