August 31, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 28, 1429

SRINAGAR, Aug 30: Violence ebbed in occupied Kashmir on Saturday and authorities relaxed the curfew for six hours to allow people to buy food and other essentials, police said.

Two groups of hundreds of protesters briefly came out onto the streets of Srinagar, but dispersed after raising banners saying “We want independence from India” and “Release separatist leaders”.

There was no confrontation with thousands of security forces deployed to enforce the curfew, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The officer said 109 activists from the All Parties Hurriyat Conference had been arrested since the curfew was imposed last Sunday.

Two months of angry protests have left at least 42 people dead, most of them killed as soldiers opened fire on Muslim protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region. The violence is the worst to hit Kashmir in more than a decade.

On Friday the curfew was relaxed briefly in the evening, but police did not allow prayers at the Jamia Mosque for the first time in 17 years.

The chief priest of the mosque was put under house arrest and was freed later in the day. Other Kashmiri leaders were arrested earlier.

The Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a pro-independence group, appealed on Saturday to the international community to ask India to immediately release the leaders.

“It’s not a curfew, but as if emergency rule has been imposed here,” Bashir Ahmed Bhat, the party’s vice chairman, said in a statement. “All of Kashmir has been converted into a prison.”

The crisis began in June when Muslims launched protests over a government plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine. The plan was quickly scrapped, angering the region’s Hindu minority, but the Muslim protests have snowballed into a broader anti-India movement.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday urged a thorough investigation of the killings that have occurred in the unrest. It also called on Indian authorities to respect the people’s right to protest peacefully and “comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators”.

India reacted angrily, saying the statement was “uncalled-for and irresponsible.”

Authorities, meanwhile, said they were trying to provide enough food and medicines for the region.—AP