August 25, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 22, 1429

SRINAGAR, Aug 24: One person was killed and dozens were injured in occupied Kashmir on Sunday when police fired bullets and used batons to disperse thousands of pro-independence protesters defying a curfew.

Authorities imposed the indefinite curfew ahead of a separatist rally planned for Monday, but thousands of people defied the order in the latest in a series of demonstrations against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

In Srinagar a 60-year-old man was killed and his son critically wounded when police fired at a group of protesters, police said.

The biggest demonstration took place in Handwara, 75km north of Srinagar where Muslims charged security personnel with desecrating the holy Quran. Authorities denied the charge.

In the past two weeks Kashmir has seen some of the biggest pro-independence demonstrations since 1989. The protests were triggered by a dispute with the region’s Hindus over transfer of land to a Hindu shrine trust, bolstering separatist sentiments in Kashmir.

Separatist leaders plan to address a huge rally on Monday in Lal chowk in the heart of Srinagar, insisting they will not be deterred by the curfew. A three-day strike called by separatists in the region began on Saturday.

“In fact the government is trying to target us. They killed Sheikh Aziz and scores of innocent people,” separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said. “Now they are trying to suppress our peaceful struggle.”

Sheikh Aziz was among 23 protesters killed by police over the past two weeks. More than 500 people have been injured in clashes.

Geelani said more than two dozen activists of the region’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, had been arrested in overnight police raids.

“They are scared of our peaceful but massive demonstrations for freedom,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the region’s leading cleric, said. “The rally in Lal Chowk is to remind India of its promises.”

Shabir Shah, a veteran separatist, said police ransacked his home overnight and harassed members of his household, though he slipped away before they arrived.

Nearly a dozen separatists were detained during night time raids, police said.

On Sunday, several journalists were beaten up by police and three were hospitalised, an association of Kashmiri journalists said. “Security personnel are abusing and beating journalists,” Farooq Khan, the president of Kashmir Press Photographers Association, said. “We strongly condemn this.”

Thousands of police and troops were patrolling the region’s streets to enforce the curfew. Police vehicles with loudspeakers urged people to remain indoors.

A government official claimed the curfew was a “precautionary measure” due to fears for the safety of separatist leaders, who immediately rubbished the government’s stance.—Agencies