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Kashmiris protest deployment of Indian troops

SRINAGAR: Police in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday detained 36 people protesting on the 57th anniversary of the deployment of Indian troops in the disputed region.

Police rounded up the demonstrators, mostly supporters of hardline separatist Syed Ali Geelani, in Srinagar, 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 Mr Geelani gave police the slip and held a noisy anti-Indian demonstration in front of the small UN 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.

The memorandum urged the UN to implement a five-decades old UN Security Council resolution giving Kashmiris a right to choose whether they want the divided state to be under the administration of India or Pakistan. A strike called by separatists to mark the anniversary closed down main business centres in Srinagar and affected government offices.

However, some traffic continued to move on the city’s streets.

Meanwhile, soldiers killed six suspected militants near the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, said Indian defence spokesman Lt Col VK Batra. Four militants were killed late on Tuesday evening in Lashdatnar, a remote border village about 130 kilometres north of Srinagar, he said.

Soldiers spotted the militants sneaking into Indian territory and ordered them to surrender, he said. But the militants opened fire and four of them were killed. Despite heavy rain and snow, soldiers were searching the area on Wednesday for more militants.

In a separate incident about 250 kilometres southwest of Srinagar, border guards gunned down two more infiltrators during night. Lt Col Batra said 20 anti-personal mines were recovered from the slain militants’ bodies. agencies

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