Kashmir police clash with hundreds of Muslim protesters over Hindu land
Posted by jagoindia on June 24, 2008
Kashmir police clash with protesters over Hindu land
Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:56pm IST
SRINAGAR (Reuters) – Police in Srinagar fired tear gas and used batons on Monday to disperse hundreds of Muslim demonstrators protesting against a government decision to transfer forest land to a Hindu shrine trust.
Authorities last week said nearly 100 acres of forest land in Kashmir was being transferred to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) to erect temporary structures for thousands of pilgrims who annually trek to a cave shrine deep in the Himalayas.
“Don’t grab our land, we want freedom,” protesters shouted.
Police detained at least 50 protesters from different parts of Srinagar, witnesses said.
Around 250,000 Hindus fled the Kashmir valley after a separatist Muslim rebellion broke out in 1989. Only about 10,000 Hindus remain after years of violent insurgency in India’s only Muslim-majority region.
The protest was called by Kashmiri separatists who also say the fragile ecology of the mountainous region will be ruined by building “permanent” structures at base camps of the pilgrimage.
The government said the charge was misleading.
“The propaganda is unleashed by some people with vested interests … special measures were initiated keeping in view the environmental requirements,” S. K. Sinha, state’s governor and chief of SASB, said in a statement.
During the two-month-long pilgrimage, tens of thousands of devout Hindus walk and ride ponies to the cave, situated at an altitude of 3,800 meters (12,700 feet), to pray by an ice stalagmite they believe to be a symbol of Hindu god Lord Shiva.
The pilgrimage has been targeted several times by separatist militants.
Ranjith said
Once again it is proved that appeasement is not an effective way in dealing the Kashmiri-Muslim problems. If you give them a little they will ask more. Kashmir should be put under Military rule and people from other parts of India should be given land there.
Urvashish/Saher Achwa said
No human is authorized to buy the land of this earth to burry himself or the wealth he has earned all life long….if while alive wishes to own a land with religious values to supress the power of lord by proving one religion supreme to the other it is a mistake a SIN in the eyes of god…a punishment not to be forgiven…if religion is what they fight on they need to own a degree of spirituality where humanity is the first lesson, oneness being the second and the last being the power of accepting, respecting every form, name and teachings of any religion. to be able to bow their heads in front of any temple, mosque, durgah or church…we as indians should be proud to be born on the laps of this very diversified country INDIA, where a child is born without being questioned about religion by the most supreme energies of nature…neither the sun nor the moon inquire the belonging of religion or caste before they brighten the day or give light at night, neither the plants or the land inquire before they feed and provide the natural resource that is written in the destiny of an individual born here….if this motherland accepts all her children the way they are y can not we accept our brothers and sisters and our loved ones our country people with out discrimination of religion or caste…Ya Allah Rehem Kare…Mahadev Bhole Kshama De….OM NAMOM NAMOH SHIVAYA…Bismillah e Rehmane Rahim…..