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NEW DELHI — The turmoil over a Kashmiri government decision to transfer a forest land to a Hindu shrine in the Muslim region spread Thursday, July 3, to India with deadly protests in several Indian states. “Two persons have been killed in violence,” Rakesh Shrivastava, an official in Indore city in central Madhya Pradesh state, told Press Trust of India news agency. “Six others are injured.” Police fired tear gas shells at Hindu mobs that had gathered in Indore and parts of the city were now under curfew. In the northern state of Punjab, protesters blockading roads clashed with police while in other parts of the country many shops remained shut for fear of incurring a backlash from party supporters. In the eastern state of Bihar, Hindu protestors blocked trains and damaged vehicles in the capital Patna. Carrying party flags and wearing saffron turbans, Hindu protesters shouted “Kashmir Hamara hai” (Kashmir is ours) as they forced traders to close shops. In Mumbai, hundreds of protesters blocked traffic on the highway from the domestic airport for more than half-an-hour, officials said. Protestors also stormed the streets in Hyderabad, Bangalore and the capital New Delhi. The protest was called for by the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over a Kashmiri government order to rescind an earlier decision to transfer land to Hindu shrine. “The response to the strike shows the anger of the people against the government’s attack on secular fabric of the country,” Prakash Javdekar, a senior BJP leader, told Reuters. “They surrendered meekly under pressure from separatists. “ Last week, the Indian Kashmiri government decided to allocate land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, a Hindu trust, to build “temporary structures” to Hindu pilgrims. The decision sparked a week of violent protests in the Muslim-majority region, forcing the government to rescind the decision. Curfew Authorities in the Indian-administrate d Kashmir also widened a curfew in the region to prevent further protests by the Hindus. “We had to take the step to prevent loss of precious lives,” said divisional commissioner Sudhanshu Pandey, told Agency France-Presses (AFP). The curfew was expected to be in place for at least the next three days. Authorities were trying to prevent the protests from escalating into riots, after a grenade was hurled at a Hindu demonstration, wounding 20, and four houses of Muslim nomads were set on fire by Hindu mobs. But in the summer capital Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley, life was returning to normal after nine days of rioting that left five dead and hundreds injured. Hindu pilgrims trek each year to a Himalayan cave in Kashmir that sits at an altitude of 3,800 meters (12,800 feet). In the past, the pilgrims have stayed in tents. But an influx of 400,000 Hindu visitors last year prompted demands for better facilities. Kashmir is divided into two parts and ruled by India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars since the 1947 independence over the region. Pakistan and the UN back the right of the Kashmir people for self-determination, an option opposed by New Delhi. |
