Protesters, police face off on streets of Kashmir
* Kashmiris say they have run out of patience waiting for Pakistan, India to get peace efforts back on track
* Say Kashmiris are forced to resort to stone-pelting
SRINAGAR: The capital of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) is seething with rage.
Over the past month, crowds of young men demanding independence from India have held mass protests and pounded police with stones.
Authorities hit back with rolling curfews, large-scale arrests and a rare deployment by the army into the streets of Srinagar.
The violence, which has killed 15 protesters and bystanders, set a tense backdrop for a meeting on Thursday between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed neighbours that fought two wars over the divided Himalayan region and have been unable to reach agreement over its future.
Hopes for the talks were further clouded after the top official in Azad Jammu and Kashmir called on thousands of members of banned militant groups on Tuesday to drive India out of all of Kashmir.
Those inside Kashmir say they have run out of patience waiting for the two countries who each claim the entire region as its own to get their peace efforts back on track after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Now, they are taking matters into their own hands.
People have lost faith, separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said from his home in Srinagar, where authorities are keeping him under house arrest after he led several street marches. The constituency of peace is shrinking day by day.
In the nearly empty alleys and warrens of Srinagar, Go Back India is carved into wooden doors, painted on the streets and written in careful block letters on the walls. Razor wire is uncoiled across roads as paramilitary forces in helmets and padded vests enforce curfew restrictions that have been in place on-and-off since last month.
A war between armed insurgents and government forces that began in 1989 and left 68,000 dead has ebbed, with militant violence dropping every year. The new protesters favour marches, sit-ins and rock barrages to challenge the security forces ubiquitous throughout the cities, towns and villages of IHK.
We dont want the world to see us as hooligans carrying guns. We want a peaceful movement, but we are forced to resort to stones, said Ahmed, a 27-year-old coppersmith, as he drank milky tea in a bare concrete room off an alley.
Like all the protesters interviewed, Ahmed declined to give his last name for fear he would be picked up by security forces who have arrested hundreds of people in recent weeks, including the head of Kashmirs Bar Association.
Life in the Nowshera now follows a daily rhythm. The security forces keep the area locked down during the day and when they withdraw in the evening, the residents come out of their homes and bombard them with stones, said Ahmed. Troops retaliate by smashing windows on their way out, he said.
The harder they push, the harder we become, said Shafat, 25, whose brother was disappeared, and presumably killed, in 1991.
Outside, a group of men sitting in front of a shop jump up and instinctively run when they hear a car turn the corner, presuming it to be paramilitary troops.
Many protest leaders have gone underground, and students Naweed, 21, and Ubaid, 20, were so concerned about being nabbed they sent Associated Press journalists to a series of destinations, where they would call with new directions, to ensure they were not being followed.
The men demanded India immediately withdraw the security forces from the cities and towns, rescind laws giving troops special powers here and release those arrested. ap
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
