{EOP}Separatist leader stages fast in Kashmir

Yasin Malik (2nd right) and other separatist leaders take part in a hunger strike in Srinagar. PHOTO: AFP

SRINAGAR: A prominent Indian Kashmir separatist leader staged a day-long fast Saturday against large-scale arrests in the aftermath of massive anti-India protests last year.

Yasin Malik, head of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, said more than 4,000 young people and separatists had been jailed by Indian police since 114 people were killed last year, mostly shot by police.

“This is a peaceful protest against the unabated crackdown on our youth,” said Malik, flanked by over a dozen separatist leaders, as some 400 protesters shouted “We want freedom.”

The demonstration took place in the centre of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, which has been wracked by a more than two-decade armed revolt against Indian rule.

Police agree that more than 4,000 people were arrested in connection with stone-throwing and other offences during last year’s five-month confrontation between security forces and protesters, but say all but 208 have been released.

The separatists insist that none of those arrested have been freed.

Discontent has simmered in Kashmir since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, when a Hindu ruler took his Muslim subjects into India rather than Islamic Pakistan.

Now, after two wars over the area, Kashmir is administered in part by India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both. Polls appear to indicate that most in Indian Kashmir favour independence.