Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Mourners killed as Indian soldiers fire into Kashmiri funeral crowd

Indian security forces today fired into a crowd that had gathered for the funeral of a prominent Kashmiri separatist leader who was shot dead yesterday, killing three people.

The shootings, on the second day forces had fired into the crowd, came amid rising violence in Indian Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state.

The violence has seen many parts of the region, including the winter capital, Srinagar, put under curfew.

The roots of the crisis lie in a tug of war between the state’s Hindus and Muslims over 100 acres of land.

Tensions escalated after a blockade of the highway by Hindu groups cut off the mountainous Kashmir region, where Muslims predominate, from the plains of Jammu, where Hindus are the majority.

As a result, traders in Kashmir have been trying to sell their goods in neighbouring Pakistan.

Kashmiri separatists called on protesters to continue their march to Muzaffarabad, in Pakistani Kashmir, today.

Yesterday, Sheik Abdul Aziz, a senior figure in the separtist Hurriyat Conference, was killed along with four other people as they attempted to cross the disputed border with Pakistan. More than 150 were injured.

“Sheikh Aziz’s death is big loss to the Kashmir nation … we will take his mission to its logical end,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chairman of Hurriyat, told Indian television.

Violence began when the state government handed over 100 acres of land for pilgrimage facilities to be built at a popular Hindu shrine at Amarnath, in the Himalayas, in May.

The land dispute has deeply divided Indian Kashmir, and this week has seen some of the region’s worst religious rioting.

Spiralling violence has shattered the relative peace of the past four years in Indian Kashmir, which is also known as Jammu and Kashmir.

The state could still face a violent insurgency, but tensions had eased after India and Pakistan agreed to a peace process in 2004.

See BBC latest: : at least 10 protesters shot dead

2 comments:

Kuldeep Trisal said...

Kashmir problem is a serious problem..... it is not the problem that has started recently. It has existed since Islam first showed its face in Kashmir. And it will also vanish once people understand the basic fundamental problem is not with the people or India or Pakistan or Muslims or Pandits but the problem is with ISLAM. Have u interacted with muslims without islam they are humans and good people, but the moment you add Islam they become Killers in the name of allah. Kashmir my homeland and Birth place is not the only place that has this typical problem.... it is almost any where and every where Muslims are there.

Problem is very clearly within the roots of Islam.... Understand muhammad to understand Islam.... "In allah hu musabrin" god is with the people of patience...... but if the islam is indeed religion of peace that it claims why IS EVERY MILLITANT THE TRUE FOLLOWER OF ISLAM..... Islam teaches them to kill anyone that doesnot beleive in Islam and Allah or muhamad and is not ready to converyt to Islam.

In what way is a kashmiri pandit different.... when it comes to kashmiri muslims they are just being tru muslims who follow quran.......
Islam says:
Love thy neighbour because he will come to your help first......
But if he follows another faith try to convert him to Islam.......
And if he doesnot then Kill him............

My brothers and sisters learn that if we want to have peace all over the world help our muslim brothers and sisters to overcome the fundamental problems with Islam.... Direct them to .... www.faithfreedom.org

Nasir Khan said...

Mr Trisal

Your comment is published. Your views about Islam (and these by analogy can also be extended to other major religions when we see them in their historical context and their holy scriptures) do not seem to present any correct information or any humane perspective. It is sad. Much harm and evil consequences follow from the sort of standpoint you have.

However, the Kashmir issue is not a religious problem even though political manipulators present it such. It is a political problem. And as long as the inherent injustice inflicted upon the people of Kashmir by the occupation forces of India continues and no effort is made to solve the basic issues by accepting the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir the problem will not disappear.

The killings of 11 protesters as reported by BBC shows what the Indian occupation forces are doing in Kashmir. Do you know how many Kashmiris have so far fallen victims to the bullets of the Indian forces? More than a hundred thousand people have been killed. It is genocide. There are independent estimates of this.