Indian MPs heckled in Kashmir
2010-09-21 12:11
Srinagar – Indian lawmakers visiting Kashmir cut short a hospital tour on Tuesday after being heckled by protesters and patients' relatives demanding independence for the violence-hit region.
The members of parliament from New Delhi were part of an all-party delegation sent to Kashmir, where more than 100 civilians have been shot dead by police and paramilitary troops during a wave of separatist protests.
Several delegates arrived at the main hospital in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital, to meet patients injured in three months of clashes between stone-throwing protesters and security forces using live rounds.
"The lawmakers were hurried away after just 10 minutes as people inside the hospital chanted slogans against rule from New Delhi," a witness who declined to be named told AFP.
"Even some hospital staff and relatives of the injured by police firing were shouting 'Go India, Go back!' at the delegates, who looked very scared and shocked."
He said police at the hospital had beaten up and detained two teenage boys who were among the scores of people shouting abuse.
Indian politicians snubbed
A total of 37 national politicians, led by Home Minister P Chidambaram, were on Monday snubbed by many local Kashmiri leaders who campaign either for autonomy or for complete independence for the Muslim-majority region.
Hardline separatist Syed Ali Geelani, who has organised the almost daily protests, refused to attend Monday's talks at a conference centre in Srinagar.
Moderate separatist leaders such as Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik also dismissed the delegation, describing it as a publicity stunt to disguise the government's lack of ideas on how to end the escalating unrest in Kashmir.
"The fact that the city is locked down under a curfew and residents cannot leave their houses while these politicians are here says everything," Farooq told AFP on Tuesday.
"They must meet the common people if they want to hear the real aspirations of Kashmiris. They already know the truth about the curfews and police brutality."
Chidambaram was not at the hospital where the protests erupted, but instead visited the town of Tangmarg, where security forces killed six protesters last week as mobs burnt down government buildings and a missionary school.
Indian Kashmir, in the far northwest of the country, has been beset by violence for 20 years during separatist insurgency that the government says is fuelled by neighbouring Pakistan.
