JAMMU, Aug 31 (2008): Hindus in Kashmir called off their two-month protest after the government allowed them temporary use of land at the centre of a religious row for an annual pilgrimage, officials said on Sunday. At least 38 people have been killed so far and more than 1,000 wounded in violence in Jammu and Kashmir, pitting Hindus in Jammu against Muslims in the Kashmir valley, the two main regions that make up the state. The dispute began over a piece of forest land near a Hindu shrine, but snowballed into some of...

VENICE, Aug 30 (2008): A new film set in Indian Kashmir seeks to go beyond stereotypes of the troubled region as either the idyllic backdrop to Bollywood movies or the subject of news reports and documentaries into the violence. "Zero Bridge", by U.S.-born Tariq Tapa in his directorial debut, is a low-key, partly-improvised drama about a rebellious Kashmiri teenager who turns to petty crime in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian part of the divided region. Dilawar, who lives with an illiterate uncle after his...

SRINAGAR, Aug 28 (2008): Authorities relaxed a four-day curfew in Indian Kashmir on Thursday to allow people to buy essentials as residents ran short of food during big protests against Indian rule. At least 30 protesters have been killed by government forces over the past three weeks in some of the largest pro-independence demonstrations since a revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out in Kashmir in 1989. More than 600 have been injured. In Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, people swarmed into grocery...

JAMMU, Aug 27 (2008): Suspected Muslim militants who slipped across the border from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir were shot dead by security forces after they killed six people in the Hindu-majority region of Jammu on Wednesday, police said. The three militants disguised as policemen were holed up in a house for 18 hours where they killed three of nine hostages they were holding and set booby traps, officials said. They had earlier shot dead two civilians and an army officer, before forcing their way into the...

SRINAGAR, Aug 26 (2008):Police beat Kashmiri protesters who defied a curfew on Tuesday and troops searched for separatist leaders as the biggest anti-India protests in two decades showed no sign of abating. Authorities said they had detained four separatist leaders since Monday. They raided the homes of dozens of leaders in a sweep that began on Monday night. Asiya Andrabi, chief of Kashmir's women's separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Muslim Faith) who led series of anti-India protests over the last...

SRINAGAR, Aug 25 (2008): Police shot dead at least four protesters on Monday in efforts to enforce a curfew in Kashmir in the face of some of the biggest demonstrations in two decades. Police detained three separatist leaders to try to stop the protests. Troops enforced a curfew in the summer capital of Srinagar, where a separatist rally had been planned, and armoured vehicles patrolled mainly deserted streets. But thousands of Muslim protesters shouting "we want freedom" defied the curfew in about a dozen rural...

SRINAGAR, Aug 24 (2008): One person was killed and dozens were injured in Indian Kashmir on Sunday when police fired bullets and used batons to disperse thousands of pro-independence protesters defying a curfew. Authorities imposed the indefinite curfew ahead of a separatist rally planned for Monday, but thousands of people defied the order in the latest in a series of demonstrations against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region. In Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, a 60-year-old man was killed and his son...

SRINAGAR,Aug 23 (2008): An army officer and a dozen separatist guerrillas were among 15 people killed in a gun battle raging near the border with Pakistan in Indian Kashmir, the army said on Saturday. The clash, one of the deadliest in recent months, broke out on Friday morning at Machil near the Line of Control, a military demarcation that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The dead included a colonel and two soldiers. "We are suspecting some more militants are hiding in the area, the operation still...

SRINAGAR, Aug 22 (2008): Waving green Islamic flags and shouting "we want freedom", hundreds of thousands of Muslims marched peacefully in Indian Kashmir's main city on Friday, resuming some of the biggest protests in two decades against Indian rule. Hundreds of trucks and buses brought the protesters, many of them sitting on roofs and hanging out of windows, for an independence rally addressed by separatist leaders. "There is no God but Allah" and "Indian forces go back", the protesters shouted. What began as a...

JAMMU, Aug 21 (2008): Hindu leaders locked in a violent land row with Muslims in Indian Kashmir asked people on Thursday to stop paying government taxes, seeking to expand their street protests into a mass civil disobedience movement. The row over whether some forest land should be given to a Hindu shrine trust has pitted Muslims in the Kashmir valley against Hindus in Jammu, the two main regions that make up the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The dispute began after the state government promised to give...