SRINAGAR, Feb 5 (1992) – Thousands of Moslem men chanting “freedom, freedom” staged a march here Wednesday, as a general strike called by Moslem separatists in support of their campaign crippled the Kashmir valley.
An estimated 12,000 Moslems marched for about a kilometer (half mile) from Chattabal area to a hospital where armed Indian security personnel dispersed them with baton charges, witnesses said.
The marchers raised slogans supporting Kashmir’s independence campaign and hailing Pakistan, which observed a simultaneous shutdown Wednesday in a gesture of solidarity with the separatist struggle in the Indian state.
The demonstration, to coincide with the Pakistani action, was sponsored by hardline Islamic groups like Al Burq, Hizbul Mujahedeen and Jamiat-e-Islami, but not by the equally powerful Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
Unlike the fundamentalist groups, which want Indian-held Kashmir to accede to Pakistan, the JKLF, the oldest rebel group in Kashmir, seeks freedom for both parts of the province divided between New Delhi and Islamabad.
But there was no violence, the witnesses said.
The Kashmir valley was paralysed by a total strike Wednesday, and streets here and in other Moslem-majority areas were virtually deserted, witnesses and residents said.
Shops, trading centres, government offices, educational institutions and banks were shut. All public and private traffic also went off the roads in this summer capital of Kashmir.
The government-sponsored strike in Pakistan has drawn condemnation from New Delhi, which accuses Islamabad of arming and harbouring the Kashmiri militants. Pakistan denies the charge.
Paramilitary troops were stationed in several areas here, and were using “informers” — guerrillas who have surrendered to the government — to scan the few people on the streets for suspected militants, the witnesses said.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir.
