Police in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar are on alert after celebrations marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha turned into anti-India protests.
Street disturbances erupted after several hundred people emerged from mosques and began chanting anti-Indian slogans and throwing stones at police, who fired tear gas into the crowds and warning shots into the air.
Police sealed off the city center square, Lal Chowk, to stop further demonstrations. Protests also happened in the Anantnag district, south of Srinagar.
Eid al-Adha, the Muslim's Festival of Sacrifice, commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead.
India's majority Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir has been the scene of many violent demonstrations in the past 25 years by separatists who wish to either join neighboring Pakistan, a Muslim majority country, or have Kashmir become independent.
Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Shabir Shah have
been placed under house arrest, police said. This meant they weren't allowed to lead prayers at mosques during the festival.
Violent demonstrations have meant police and the military adopting wide-ranging powers of search and arrest under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, a cause of much resentment among the state's population.
Police are vigilant particularly after security forces killed a 17-year-old student during a demonstration in June when they allegedly fired shots into a group of protesters.
The incident sparked off some of the worst civil unrest in Kashmir for years and lasted until September. Indian media also reported at the time that some of the violence was triggered by news reports that the Koran was being desecrated in United States.
More than 110 people, including several police and security personnel, have died in the clashes.
The future of Kashmir remains a flash point between India and Pakistan as they try to reconcile their borders and fight insurgents on both sides of the frontier. Pakistan also claims most of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The Kashmir Valley — 85 miles long and 20 miles wide — in which Srinagar lies is a particularly restive area close to the border with Pakistan. Its population of 4 million is mainly Muslim.
This week the anti-Indian Kashmir Media service said the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the Islamic world to sympathize and provide assistance to the Kashmiris, as well as Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
Muslims around the world are should "engage in struggle and resistance against the aggressions, to safeguard the solidarity of Muslims and stop tainted hands and mercenary voices that try to damage this unity," Khamenei said in his message to Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
