Indian Kashmir’s top separatist called on Thursday for protesters to hold mass sit-ins at police and Army camps, posing a new challenge to security forces as they struggle to restore order.

They lead from the front and it shows. 662 Jammu and Kashmir police personnel are counting their injuries received while battling the fury of stone-throwers who have virtually paralysed the Kashmir Valley for the past seven weeks. They have worked in the most trying circumstances without much appreciation.

Amid violent protests in the Kashmir Valley, Congress ministers in state have appealed to the people, particularly youngsters, to maintain peace and calm.

Violence hit Budgam district on Monday where protestors set afire two government offices and a railway shed as curfew remained clamped in the entire Kashmir Valley.

The government is ready to talk to different Kashmiri groups on the prevailing situation in the Valley as there is no harm “in meeting our own people”, home minister P. Chidambaram said on Friday.