AFP: Police in Kashmir clash with anti-India demonstrators
SRINAGAR, India — Police fired teargas Friday to disperse an anti-India demonstration by Kashmiris celebrating Pakistan's Independence Day.
Scores of young men, some waving the Pakistani flag, emerged out of the Indian region's main Mughal-built mosque in summer capital Srinagar and staged a noisy pro-Pakistan demonstration.
They burst crackers and burned the Indian flag as police fired repeated teargas cannisters to disperse the demonstrators, who eventually retreated into narrow lanes from where they pelted officers with stones and bricks.
A nearly 20-year-old Muslim insurgency in Indian Kashmir has claimed more than 47,000 lives.
The majority of militant groups active in the Muslim-majority region favour its secession from India to neighbouring Pakistan. Few want total independence for the region.
Violence has declined in the state since India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004 to resolve all pending disputes including Kashmir.
The dispute dates from the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the Kashmiri region is split between the two countries along a UN-monitored line of control.
In the early years of the insurgency, militants used to hold parades to mark Pakistan's national holiday, but these faded after India poured troops into the region.
The Indian army Friday took positions in buildings, including hospitals which overlook the venue for celebrations of India's Independence Day on Saturday which is boycotted by separatists.
Sharpshooters mounted machine guns and grenade launchers on the top storeys in Srinagar to keep vigil on Bakshi Stadium which will host a tightly guarded ceremony, the first to be attended by new leader Omar Abdullah.
The venue has been attacked by rockets and bombs on past Independence Days, which separatists mark each year with a strike.