SRINAGAR, March 3: A Kashmiri group in occupied Kashmir urged US President George W. Bush on Friday to push India and Pakistan to demilitarise their zones of scenic Kashmir.
President Bush arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday on a trip that was also scheduled to take him to Pakistan.
“The US president should prevail upon the governments of India and Pakistan to demilitarise the entire Jammu and Kashmir,” said the moderate wing of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference in a statement.
President Pervez Musharraf has proposed several times demilitarizing the territory. But India has rejected the idea, saying it is fighting a deadly insurgency against New Delhi’s rule in its zone.
Hurriyat also asked President Bush to urge India and Pakistan to resolve the row according to “the aspirations of the people of Kashmir.”
There have been similar appeals to Mr Bush by other Kashmiri leaders working outside Hurriyat asking him to push for a resolution of the dispute.
35 INJURED: At least 35 people were injured on Friday when Muslims clashed with police in occupied Kashmir during protests over blasphemous caricatures, police said.
The clashes erupted outside Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
Several thousand Muslims chanting “Death to enemies of Islam” and “Down with US” poured out of the main mosque after Friday prayers and tried to march on a United Nations office, witnesses said.
Police fired teargas and used batons to disperse the protesters, who retreated into narrow alleys and threw stones at riot police.
“In the ding-dong brick battles, some 35 people, including six policemen and two press photographers were injured,” a police officer said.
In a similar demonstration in Jammu some 6,000 Muslims took to the streets after Friday prayers chanting “Hang Danish cartoonist” and “Down with (US President) Bush,” reporters said.
Demonstrations were also reported from other parts of the state.
Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani, who had called for the protests, was placed under house arrest early on Friday, his party said in a statement.
The protests came amid a one-day strike which paralysed major centres in Occupied Kashmir.
The strike also affected other towns in Kashmir, according to residents reached by telephone.
“We want to make it clear to the world that we are not going to accept anything against our beloved Prophet,” a Hurriyat statement said.—AFP
