Kashmir Sees Worst Communal Tension in Decades

August 8, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Dawn

Wire Service: AFP

http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/09/top9.htm

Occupied Kashmir is facing a shortage of food, fuel and medicine as the violence-hit region is gripped by the worst Hindu-Muslim tensions in decades, locals say.

Angry protesters in Hindu-dominated Jammu have been attacking trucks ferrying food, drugs and other essential supplies to the Muslim-majority valley, seeking to impose an economic blockade and defying a curfew.

Radical Hindu groups have told Muslims living in Jammu to leave and the latter’s houses have been set ablaze.

Meanwhile in Srinagar, urban hub of a 19-year movement against New Delhi’s occupation of the disputed region, brick-hurling Muslims have been staging running battles with police and the city has been paralysed by strikes.

Some residents say they have never seen the region so divided.

“Even at the insurgency’s peak we never faced such a grim situation. These religious riots are the worst I remember,” said shopkeeper Manzoor Ahmed, 50.

“They’ve driven a wedge between Hindus and Muslims who were living as brothers.”

The latest turmoil in which three Hindus have been killed in the past week erupted after authorities reneged on a plan to transfer land to a Hindu trust.