SRINAGAR, Jan 29 (1990) Moslems who spent last week in revolt against Indian rule of Kashmir took to the streets again on Monday – to tell their Hindu and Sikh neighbours not to fear sectarian attack.
Many Hindu and Sikh families fled Srinagar last week when violent protest swept the summer capital of the country’s only Moslem-majority state, residents said.
Indian security forces shot dead nearly 50 people in running battles with Moslem demonstrators backing militant demands for independence for Jammu and Kashmir state or secession to neighbouring Pakistan.
A curfew, finally enforced last Friday, was relaxed on Monday and residents said Moslems promptly went from door to door to reassure remaining Hindus and Sikhs they were not targets for attack.
Many Hindus and Sikhs had fled, fearing sectarian riots of the sort that erupt sporadically elsewhere in India between the country’s majority Hindus, the large Moslem minority and the smaller Sikh community.
The exodus prompted weekend demonstrations in Delhi by the Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose parliamentary support is crucial to the minority government of Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh.
Singh, who faces regional elections in Hindi heartland states next month, has made plain he will not concede Kashmir to the militants.
Foreign minister Inder Gujral has launched a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan, which has fought two wars with India over Kashmir and now controls a third of the territory.
India accuses Pakistan of confrontation, arming Kashmiri militants and backtracking on a 1972 agreement to settle Kashmir’s future by negotiation.
Pakistan, denying charges it aids the militants, has renewed demands for a plebiscite on the state’s future.
On Monday, the crackdown in Srinagar by Singh’s new Kashmir governor, Jagmohan, seemed to be working.
Curfew was lifted in Srinagar for seven hours, security forces patrolled in smaller numbers, buses and three-wheeler taxis returned to the streets, shops raised their shutters and Kashmiris came out to restock their larders.
There were no violent incidents, a government spokesman said. Officials said they would relax the curfew for an extra hour each day if tension continued to ease.
Media restrictions enforced last Friday were eased too.
Visiting journalists, who had been confined to the main hotel and barred access to its telephones, were allowed to make and receive calls again and the public telex office, under armed guard over the weekend, was reopened.
