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Hundreds of protesters clash
with police in IHK
Srinagar—Hundreds of protesters clashed with police Friday in Indian
Kashmir, demanding an investigation into the recent discovery of
more than 900 unmarked graves as India’s prime minister visited the
troubled territory.
At least 10 policemen were injured - three critically - as
protesters threw rocks, said local police officer Pervez Ahmed. It
was not immediately known if any protesters were hurt.
Police fired tear gas and used bamboo batons to disperse the
protesters, Ahmed said.
Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, the chief Muslim cleric and chairman of APH,
led a vehicle convoy of nearly 2,000 protesters to hand over a
petition to the U.N. office in the territory’s main city, Srinagar.
The petition called for an investigation into alleged human rights
violations by Indian authorities.
During a sermon he preached at a mosque before the protest Friday,
Farooq demanded an investigation into the unmarked graves, believed
to be those of people killed by India’s security forces during the
territory’s nearly two-decade uprising against Indian rule.
Farooq was detained at a police station later Friday, another police
officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized
to speak to media.
Four senior leaders of Indian Kashmir’s main separatist alliance
were placed under house arrest hours before Friday’s protests, said
police officer Shabir Ahmed.
He had said that they were detained as a preventive measure because
police anticipated law and order problems during Indian Prime
Minister’s Manmohan Singh’s trip to Kashmir. Last month, the
Association of Parents of Disappeared People, an Indian Kashmir
rights group, issued a report saying it found 940 unmarked graves
near Uri, one of Kashmir’s most violent areas. Uri is near the Line
of Control, in the parts of Kashmir controlled by India and
Pakistan.—AP
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