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Protests In Kashmir As India Postpones Ceasefire Extension
NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Indian government Sunday postponed a decision on whether to extend its unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir, as a fresh bout of civil unrest rocked the troubled region.
National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra said the meeting of the cabinet committee on security affairs scheduled for Sunday evening was put off because an earlier meeting on the Gujarat earthquake took longer than expected.
He said a new time for the security committee meeting had not yet been decided.
India's coalition government on November 27th suspended counter-insurgency operations against Kashmiri groups for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The truce had twice been extended and it is due to expire on February 26th.
Indian Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee admitted Saturday the ceasefire had not brought an end to the violence.
"The ceasefire did not achieve the results that were expected. Violence in Kashmir has not ebbed and we had thought Pakistan would be able to rein back the terrorists but it has failed," Vajpayee told reporters in Bombay.
However, analysts say the premier is in favor of extending the truce, which expires on February 26th, to give fragile peace moves in the disputed Himalayan region a chance.
Press reports said hardline Hindu nationalist Home Minister L.K. Advani and Defense Minister George Fernandes opposed the measure.
Most pro-Pakistan Islamic groups in Indian-administered Kashmir state that the Indian ceasefire was, since the beginning, a farce, and that Indian troops during the period continued an escalation in violence directed at its majority Muslim population.
They rejected the Indian truce, calling it a public relations ploy to garner international moral credentials while on the ground India did not end military operations.
During the ceasefire period, and there has been a series of spectacular attacks.
In December, Kashmiri fighters attacked the Red Fort in New Delhi killing three people inside, while in January three policeman and two civilians died in a suicide attack on Srinagar airport.
And in a daring raid last week, a squad from the Lashker-e-Taiba group stormed the main police headquarters in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar and in a fierce battle, gunned down eight policemen.
There has been a wave of unrest during the past week in Indian-held Kashmir, where an estimated 34,000 people have died in the conflict since groups opposing Indian rule initiated an anti-India insurgency in 1989.
Triggered by the reported death in police custody of a Kashmiri independence activist, large crowds took to the streets across the region.
In one incident at Haigam, north of Srinagar, on Thursday, Indian troops opened fire on thousands of demonstrators, killing four people.
On Sunday, witnesses said around 25,000 people, many shouting slogans against the government and the ceasefire, gathered in Haigam to pray for the victims.
The Indian military, meanwhile, expressed regret over the incident and promised to bring to justice any soldiers deemed to have acted improperly.
Police in Srinagar opened fire on stone-throwing protesters during clashes throughout Sunday, which left around two-dozen people injured, police and witnesses said.
Police enforced a curfew on parts of the city for a third day running and detained or put under house arrest high-profile Kashmiri leaders such as Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and Syed Ali Geelani of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC).
Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided into Indian and Pakistani zones and the entire region is claimed by both countries.
India's decision to implement the ceasefire prompted Pakistan to respond by announcing a policy of "maximum restraint" along the Line of Control, effectively the border that divides Kashmir into two zones.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since 1947 and they came dangerously close to a fourth one in the summer of 1999.
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