MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 27: Thousands of people in Azad Jammu and Kashmir demonstrated on Wednesday to mark the 57th anniversary of India's invasion of Kashmir as a 'black day'.

Around 2,000 people, many wearing black armbands, gathered in the heart of the city to denounce forcible annexation of Kashmir by India.

"We condemn the invasion of Kashmir by India 57 years ago under the pretext of a false document," Sardar Sikandar Hayat, the AJK prime minister, told the rally, referring to the instrument of accession India claims the last Dogra ruler of Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh had signed in its favour.

"India invaded Kashmir after it feared that Kashmiris wanted accession to Pakistan. The ongoing freedom movement bears testimony to the fact that the Kashmiris never wanted to live with India."

Wednesday's event was held in the backdrop of President Pervez Musharraf's call on Monday for increased flexibility between India and Pakistan in trying to resolve the dispute.

Musharraf told local media on Monday that he was prepared to dump Pakistan's insistence of a plebiscite for Kashmiris to determine their own fate in favour of a range of compromise proposals.

These options include splitting the seven regions of Kashmir between India and Pakistan along geographical and racial lines, giving all or some of the regions independence or placing them under joint control of the two nations.

"I make a passionate appeal to the Pakistani government that whatever they propose, they should first take the Kashmiri leadership into confidence," Hayat said, avoiding direct criticism of the options.

The leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Sheikh Aqeelur Rehman, described Musharraf's options as "retreat and betrayal".

The protestors later marched to the offices of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) and handed over a memorandum demanding the withdrawal of "foreign forces from Kashmir and the holding of a UN-sponsored plebiscite".

"We call upon you to use your good offices and personal influence to make India concede to Kashmiris their inalienable right to self-determination," read the memorandum, addressed to UN chief Kofi Annan.

In Srinagar, police detained some three dozen people protesting on the 57th anniversary of the deployment of Indian troops in the disputed region.

Police rounded up the demonstrators, mostly supporters of hard-line freedom movement leader Syed Ali Geelani, in the state's summer capital, witnesses said.

"They have been lodged in various police stations," a police officer said.

Among those arrested were Javed Mir, chairman of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Forum, and six of his supporters. However, some 30 supporters of Geelani gave police the slip and held a noisy anti-Indian demonstration in front of the small United Nations office in Srinagar, witnesses said.

Police rushed to the scene but were too late to stop the protesters from handing over a memorandum to UN military observer Hobart Molin, who said he would forward it to UN headquarters.-AFP