Clashes, protests rock Indian Kashmir during separatist strike

Apr 13, 2010, 13:50 GMT

Srinagar, Kashmir - More than a dozen people, including policemen, were injured in clashes between angry mobs and security personnel during a strike called Tuesday by separatist leaders, officials said.

The strike was called by the hardline faction of the separatist Hurriyat group in protest of the conviction of six Kashmiris in a 1996 bombing in New Delhi that killed 13 people.

At least 15 people, including three policemen, were hurt in clashes in the state capital Srinagar and the nearby town of Sopore, a state police officer said.

The protestors, taking part in processions and rallies, threw stones at police, who used tear gas to disperse the mobs.

Life across the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley was disrupted because of the strike. Shops, other businesses and schools were closed, and government offices recorded thin attendance.

Police and paramilitary troops sealed the old city in Srinagar and put up barbed wire on main roads to prevent people from moving on the streets.

'The strike is to protest the conviction of the Kashmiris,' hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said while also accusing the Indian judiciary of being 'partisan and biased.'

Leading female separatist politician Farida Dar and five men were convicted Thursday in the bombing in Delhi's busy Lajpat Nagar market on May 21, 1996.

The troubled Kashmir region has seen a violent secessionist movement over two decades in which more than 45,000 people - civilians, militants and security personnel - have been killed.

Anti-India sentiment run deep in the region, and there are often clashes with security forces, which are present in large numbers.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir, which is divided into two parts administered by the two countries.

India has accused Pakistan of nurturing militancy in the region. Islamabad has denied the charge, calling the militants freedom fighters.