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Indian police accuse Kashmiri leader of treason
Associated Press - September 12, 2010
Aijaz Hussain, Srinagar, India – Police in Indian-administered Kashmir formally accused a key separatist leader of treason Sunday for allegedly inciting violence after participants in a massive anti-India rally torched government offices.
Armored vehicles patrolled the streets Sunday and security forces used steel and barbed-wire barricades to seal off public squares and neighborhoods in Srinagar, the largest city.
Scores of people defied a curfew throughout the region and clashed with government forces, police said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq could face a death sentence or life imprisonment if prosecutors follow through with formal charges and he is convicted. However, police have brought similar cases against other separatist leaders in the past and they have rarely been pursued.
After leading a special prayer Saturday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Farooq asked worshippers to march in Srinagar. Some demonstrators later attacked and burned a building housing the offices of the state police and electricity department. Shiv Murari Sahai, a senior police officer, said police were investigating those responsible for the violence.
Farooq on Sunday denied provoking people to burn the government offices. The accusation "is a desperate attempt to dilute the political significance of thousands of Kashmiris who gathered... demanding their right to self determination," he told The Associated Press.
Farooq is a key leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organization for nonviolent political and religious groups. He also is the chief Muslim cleric in Indian Kashmir.
The mostly Muslim region has seen near-daily anti-government demonstrations and clashes between protesters and security forces for the past three months.
At least 69 people – mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s – have been killed in the protests against control of the region by predominantly Hindu India.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both. Protesters reject Indian rule and want independence or a merger with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
The current unrest in Indian Kashmir is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi's rule sparked an armed conflict that has so far killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.
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