August 09, 2008
SRINAGAR: India's Kashmir valley faced shortages of food, fuel and medicine as the worst Hindu-Muslim tensions in decades, sparked by a planned land transfer, gripped the revolt-hit region, according to locals.
Protesters in Hindu-dominated Jammu in Indian Kashmir have been attacking trucks ferrying supplies to the Muslim-majority valley, defying an army curfew.
Radical Hindu groups have told Muslims living in Jammu to leave and the latter's houses have been set ablaze.
Meanwhile, in Srinagar, the urban hub of a 19-year Islamic revolt against New Delhi's rule of the disputed Himalayan region, brick-hurling Muslims have been staging running battles with police and the city has been paralysed by strikes.
The Indian Army was preparing to send 10,000 extra soldiers to Kashmir yesterday amid fears that the violence would spread.
An army source said the fresh forces would back up paramilitary and police units that have been stretched close to breaking point.
Some residents said they had never seen the region so divided.
"Even at the insurgency's peak, we never faced such a grim situation. These religious riots are the worst I remember," shopkeeper Manzoor Ahmed, 50, said. "They've driven a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, who were living as brothers."
The latest turmoil, in which 15 people have been killed in the past week, erupted after the state government reneged on a plan to transfer land to a Hindu trust shrine.
The government backed down on the plan after days of riots by Muslim separatists, who charged it was the start of "Hindu colonisation", left six dead and hundreds injured.
The Congress-led state government, which also rules at the national level, said it devised the plan to transfer land - 40ha - to the Hindu shrine of Armanath as pilgrim numbers were rising and more shelters were needed.
But some analysts believe the move was politically motivated, aimed at winning Hindu votes in a coming election.
The state government collapsed over the issue last month after its main ally withdrew support and the scenic region has been put under federal rule.
"This is the most polarised situation I've seen in a generation," said Omar Abdullah, head of the Kashmir-based National Conference Party.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held an all-party meeting late Wednesday in a bid to defuse the tensions, but there was no concrete progress.
Hospitals in the Kashmir valley said they were running out of medicine because of the blockade and they feared a rise in deaths of children and the elderly.
Kashmiri farmers complained their produce was rotting because they could not transport it to New Delhi and beyond.
Hundreds of trucks were stranded on the 300km highway to the valley, which is the only surface link between Kashmir and the rest of India.
Source: The Australian
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