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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
1,000 Kashimiris Stage Independence Rally
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Foreign Broadcast Information Service, March 31, 1992
Hong Kong: 1,000 Kashmiris Stage Independence Rally
</hdr>
<body>
<p>[Hong Kong AFP in English 1318 GMT 30 Mar 92]
</p>
<p> [Text] Srinagar, India, March 30 (AFP)--Some 1,000 Muslims
staged a pro-Kashmir independence rally here Monday [30 March],
burning the governor of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in effigy
for not allowing a storming of the Indian Zone.
</p>
<p> The rally was staged as Indian troops along the ceasefire
line dividing the Muslim-dominated mountain region stayed on
maximum alert and enforced a curfew in three tense border
towns. No attempt to storm the border was reported.
</p>
<p> "We want freedom, we will die for freedom," chanted the
demonstrators, who gathered at the Ali Kadal neighbourhood in
downtown Srinagar on a call from Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front (JKLF) guerrilla leader Javed Ahmad Mir. "Death to Sardar
Abdul Qayyum," they shouted as they set alight an effigy of the
premier of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, whose administration
cracked down on JKLF cadres to scuttle their plans to storm the
Line of Control Monday.
</p>
<p> Indian paramilitary troopers in the vicinity stayed inside
their bunkers and made no effort to disperse the demonstrators,
who assembled in cold, murky weather to wave pro-independence
banners and hear Mir. Mir delivered a 15-minute speech, lashing
out at both Pakistan and India, who both claim Kashmir and hold
parts of the state over which they have fought two wars since
their independence from Britain in 1947.
</p>
<p> The 28-year-old guerrilla leader said the people of Kashmir
had to fight for independence on their own and could not depend
on outside help to boost their campaign. The JKLF has announced
it was postponing plans to take activists to the Line of
Control, or ceasefire line, on Monday to receive marchers from
Pakistan, where police arrested the group's leader, Amanullah
Khan, last week. The JKLF is the oldest of several Muslim
militant groups fighting for secession in the Indian part of
Kashmir, but most of them favour union with Pakistan rather than
independence.
</p>
<p> An attempt by Pakistan-based JKLF supporters to storm the
Line of Control and enter India last month was thwarted by
Pakistani forces, who opened fire and killed 16 people by
unofficial count.
</p>
<p> Meanwhile, Indian authorities clamped a curfew in the towns
of Sopore, Anantnag and Baramulla as a precaution and tightened
security in Srinagar, the urban hub of the secessionist
campaign. B.S. Bedi, director of the Kashmir police, told AFP
that no attempt had been made to breach the border on either
side until Monday evening.
</p>
<p> Any violation of the ceasefire line would meet with a "heavy
hand," Bedi said, adding that extensive security arrangements
had been made all along the border and in the Kashmir Valley.
Muslim militants and security forces exchanged intermittent
gunfire in the valley, but no casualties were reported. Six
bullet-riddled bodies were found in the District of Budgam, but
the victims were not identified.
</p>
<p> The Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen, another militant group, withdrew
an indefinite general strike which entered the fourth day
Monday. The strike had been called to protest the alleged death
in police custody of a leading militant who the police said
escaped arrest. The Muslimeen said it was cancelling the protest
because of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>