Indian troops sealed off large parts of Kashmir’s summer capital following random grenade attacks and murders ahead of a visit on Wednesday by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Combat troops backed up commandos and border guards in Srinagar, where residents in several districts found themselves corralled into ”sanitised zones” on Tuesday amid unprecedented security before Singh’s two-day trip.
”There is very tight security in view of the round-table conference and the prime minister’s visit and operations are going on across the [Kashmir] valley,” Indian army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Vijay Batra told Agence France-Presse.
He said Singh would head straight for a meeting of security commanders to review the situation in Kashmir.
Muslim militants, waging an insurgency since 1989, have vowed to disrupt the talks aimed at restoring peace in the restive state.
Seven people died and 22 were wounded on Sunday when rebels opposing peace efforts attacked hundreds of people at a political event in Srinagar.
The restrictions in the city of one million led to frayed tempers as office workers were forced to travel many extra miles on circuitous routes.
”Why can’t the prime minister stay home in New Delhi and hold all his talks there?” asked resident Ghulam Rasool as he escorted his daughter to school near Srinagar’s heavily fortified airport zone.
”This is the height of our tourism season and such round-tables will only scare off our guests,” said another resident, after being shooed off a street while a siren-blaring security convoy drove past.
Despite heightened security a civilian was killed and 34 injured, including five Indian tourists, in four separate grenade attacks by Islamic militants in Srinagar on Monday.
Two of the injured died in a Srinagar hospital on Tuesday, police said, adding troops gunned down an armed rebel in northern Kupwara district, while a Muslim civilian died in a cross-fire incident in the same district.
Police also said guerrillas killed a civilian in southern Doda district.
The venue for the peace conference on the banks of Dal Lake was out of bounds to traffic on Tuesday. Soldiers with automatic weapons and shoulder-fired rocket launchers patrolled the lake on powerboats.
The prospect of progress in the talks, meant to group all sides that do not espouse violence, was clouded by boycotts and threats of boycotts.
The United Jehad Council, comprising 16 militant forums, called a two-day general strike to coincide with Singh’s visit and branded the round-table ”a sham”.
On Monday the moderate faction of Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the Hurriyat or Freedom Alliance, turned down its invitation to the talks which it termed ”futile”.
”The Hurriyat considers that a crowd comprising political hypocrites with no agenda can hardly produce a result in terms of a permanent settlement of the Kashmir problem,” Alliance chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.
The Hurriyat, which did attend talks with Singh in New Delhi last month, asked to meet Singh on the event’s sidelines.
Kashmir’s opposition National Conference Party was not happy about that prospect.
”If there are meetings on the sidelines of the conference between Hurriyat and the prime minister then the National Conference will not participate and we will seek a meeting on the sidelines as well,” said party leader Omar Abdullah, a former Indian foreign minister.
India’s Hindu nationalist BJP party also rejected the round-table, prompting Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to say the boycotters were making a mistake because they would lose a chance to offer suggestions for improving conditions in the state.
”The Hurriyat and the others will be losers by boycotting because various political parties have readied their proposals and suggestions for the talks,” said Azad, who belongs to Singh’s Congress party. — AFP
