SRINAGAR, India, March 22 (AFP) - Anger at a bloody massacre of 36 Sikh villagers boiled over in the Kashmir Valley on Wednesday with protests and strikes bringing the territory to a standstill.
An eerie calm descended on the summer capital of Srinagar with a Muslim-backed strike to condemn Monday night's massacre and a state-ordered day of mourning keeping all but the brave off the streets.
The massacre occurred on the eve of U.S. President Bill Clinton's five-day state visit to India.
All Srinagar shops and businesses were closed and the few who dared to violate the strike were beaten up by residents.
Fresh clashes between mujahideen and Indian security forces in Kashmir on Tuesday night and Wednesday left 12 Muslims and one Indian dead.
In the southern winter capital Jammu, some 15,000 Sikhs and Hindus marched to the governor's office calling for the dismissal of the state government led by Indian-backed Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
A Sikh leader in Jammu, Narinder Singh Khalsa, pleaded with Clinton to use his trip to India to "mediate and settle the Kashmir issue."
The protest, the first involving large sections of the Sikh community, came amid calls for calm from religious leaders fearful that public anger could lead to a cycle of revenge attacks.
Angry Sikhs targeted Muslims on Tuesday night, prompting local authorities to impose a curfew.
Wednesday's demonstrators demanded the removal of Abdullah's government and shouted anti-Pakistan slogans as they rallied outside the governor's office.
Abdullah blamed Pakistan and called on Kashmiris to unite against Islamabad's "gameplan."
Kashmir's chief cleric, Omar Farooq, who also heads the Freedom Conference – an umbrella grouping of some two dozen pro-independence political parties that called the strike – demanded a probe into the killings.
"If some agency comes forward we will offer all the cooperation to the investigating body, which can be an NGO, a human rights group or even journalists," he said.
The massacre was carried out by around 30 gunmen who descended Monday night on Chatisinghpoora village, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of here, where 90 percent of the 2,000-odd residents are Sikhs.
The Indian government said it had proof that two Pakistan-based Muslim groups were behind the killings but Islamabad has denied any role.
It was the first major anti-Sikh attack in Kashmir and the worst massacre since the Muslim independence drive began in 1989. Militants have often targeted Hindus but have left Sikhs largely untouched.
Wazir Singh, who leads the body that manages the Sikh temples in Kashmir, called for an investigation and recommended "stern punishment" for the culprits.
"We have to live here like brothers and must contribute to this objective by defeating the designs of those who have perpetuated this crime to sow seeds of discord," he said.
Student Abid Ahmed said the strike "proved once again that Kashmiris disapprove such killings" and lambasted the Indian media for blaming Muslims.
After meeting Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in New Delhi on Tuesday, President Clinton said peace talks between India and Pakistan could not resume until the violence ended.
The dialogue has been on ice since last year's two-month conflict along the Kashmir border.
Abdullah visited Chatisinghpoora village Tuesday and told an emotional crowd that Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had passed on their deepest sympathies.
"Before I left for Kashmir, Albright held my hand and said 'Please convey my bereavement to the families,'" Abdullah told the mourners near the cremation site.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on Tuesday called for an investigation and said Pakistan "strongly condemns" the killings, which he described as a "gruesome act of terrorism."
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan also condemned the massacre.
