Clashes in Kashmir at plans to resettle Hindus

A policeman gestures towards Kashmiri protesters during a demonstration against the plan to resettle Hindus, in Srinagar yesterday.

IANS/Srinagar

More than two dozen people were injured here yesterday as security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) supporters clashed after their leader Yasin Malik was arrested during a protest march against reported moves to set up separate enclaves for Pandits in the Kashmir Valley.Police and the Central Reserve Police Force responded with batons and tear smoke shells after Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front activists stoned them, police officials and witnesses said.Dozens of JKLF supporters led by Malik started a protest march earlier towards the city centre Lal Chowk from the adjacent Maisuma locality.When the marchers were near the Taj Hotel building, some distance away from Lal Chowk, police intercepted them and took Malik into preventive custody. This sparked off the violence.The JKLF had called for the protest march and a sit-in at Lal Chowk against the Jammu and Kashmir government’s plans to set up townships for migrant Pandits in the Kashmir Valley.Malik says such townships would further divide the Muslim and Hindu communities in the valley and create a Gaza like situation where Jewish settlers are supported by the Israeli state against the wishes of the people of Palestine.On Thursday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohamed Sayeed announced that there was no proposal to set up clusters for Pandits in the valley.“I have told Home Minister Rajnath Singh that they can’t stay separately. If it happens, then everyone will stay together. It is a symbol of our diversity. There is no plan, no decision... but it is being floated that a separate homeland will be created. That is not possible,” Sayeed said in the state assembly on Thursday,