Geelani calls for protest sit-ins at Army camps

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.

“I have urged people to stage peaceful sit-in protests in front of Army and security force camps in Kashmir,” Syed Ali Geelani, who has led protests over the last three months, told reporters in Srinagar.

The new action, the first of its kind since mass demonstrations began in June, will begin next Tuesday, said the hardline 81-year-old leader, who has set a calendar for protests that has been rigorously followed to date.

“The protests on September 21 will be peaceful where people will chant slogans like ‘Go India, Go Back!’,” he said, adding that petitions would also be handed to Army camp officers urging them to leave Kashmir.

Army spokesman J.S. Brar slammed the new initiative, which came after a meeting of senior security force officials who said they had formulated a new strategy to quell the violence.

“This is a deliberate attempt to embroil the Army in the ongoing agitation and distract it from its primary role,” he told reporters, adding that the protests were aimed at “preventing movement of Army convoys”.

“The Army makes a sincere appeal to the people to avoid being misled by the separatist leaders and avoid confronting Army garrisons or vehicles,” Brar told reporters.
More than 90 anti-India protesters have been shot dead by the police in the last three months in the disputed Himalayan region, with the government under fire over its handling of the crisis.

Almost daily clashes have seen masked Kashmiris, some barely teenagers, throw stones at armed security forces, who have retaliated with tear gas and live ammunition.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/33169" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-225a743c6d9ce08aea39126abf87803a" value="form-225a743c6d9ce08aea39126abf87803a" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85404899" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.