Thousands of angry Muslims mourning at least 21 protesters killed by police rioted across Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday, as a land row with Hindus revived calls for independence, spilled over to other Indian cities, and presented Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government with one of its biggest tests. OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu strongly condemned “the ongoing excessive and unwarranted use of force against the Kashmiri people” and urged the Indian government to end the violence in the interest of sustaining the India-Pakistan peace process, central to which is a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute. Similar condemnation by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi drew a strong reaction from India which said such statements constitute clear interference in its internal affairs. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said Pakistan has “set in motion” the process to call on the “international community, in particular the UN, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and human rights organizations to take notice.” The communal flare-up was triggered by a Kashmir government decision in June to donate local land to a Hindu pilgrimage trust. Authorities cancelled the land transfer after deadly protests, but that sparked riots in the Hindu-dominated south of Jammu and Kashmir state, with Hindu hardliners attacking Muslims and blocking the road to the valley. Earlier Wednesday, thousands of people streamed out of their homes to buy supplies as authorities relaxed a curfew for several hours. The lockdown, the first to be imposed across the entire Kashmir region in 18 years, was ordered after separatist leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz and four others were killed Monday while attempting to march to the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir to protest a blockade by Hindus of the highway linking the Kashmir Valley with the rest of India. In Srinagar, residents chanting “we will spill blood for blood” poured onto the streets to join funeral processions for two Muslims who died of wounds in hospital early Wednesday. Two senior separatist leaders, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani, have called for “non-violent protest demonstrations” to continue. “We call upon the nation to observe three days of mourning and hold peaceful demonstrations,” Farooq said. He also called on Kashmiris to observe August 15, India's Independence Day, as a “black day.” In Kishtwar town, where Hindus and Muslims clashed Tuesday leaving two dead, police said they would shoot anyone violating a curfew. Kishtwar is some 250 km north of Jammu, the Kashmir region's only majority Hindu city. In New Delhi, Mumbai and Agra, protesting Hindu nationalist groups blocked traffic and railway lines for several hours. The communal tensions have raised fears that general elections due next year could lead to the politicization of the issue.
