பாகிஸ்தானை நோக்கி சென்ற காஷ்மீரிகள் மீது போலீஸ் சூடு

பாகிஸ்தான் போகவிரும்பும் முஸ்லீம்களை இங்கே தடுத்தி நிறுத்தி என்ன செய்யப்போகிறார்கள்?

போகட்டுமே.

Police fire on Kashmir protesters

This protester was beaten by police
At least two people have been killed and dozens injured after police in Indian-administered Kashmir fired shots to disperse thousands of Muslims.

Clashes erupted in Srinagar and the nearby town of Sopore when protesters marched towards the Line of Control dividing the disputed region.

They support fruit growers who want to take produce over the de facto border.

Muslims in the Kashmir valley say they face a road blockade by Hindus in the state as part of a row over land.

Stones

The BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says the fruit growers have vowed to take their produce across the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the Indian and Pakistani-controlled portions of the disputed territory.


Protests over land erupted in June

The only surface link between the region and the rest of India is through the Hindu-dominated Jammu area in the south of the state, which both India and Pakistan claim.

Hindus in Jammu have protested for weeks since plans to transfer land to be used by pilgrims visiting the Amarnath shrine in the valley were scrapped.

With the highway blocked for days, our correspondent says, the fruit growers complain their produce is rotting.

The authorities have stepped up security on the main road south but tensions have brought a decrease in traffic. Many drivers say they are too frightened to travel.

Thousands of fruit growers and other protesters began their march from Sopore, 50km (30 miles) north of Srinagar, the state's summer capital.

Police say several of their personnel were injured by stones thrown by protesters.

All routes leading to the fruit market in Srinagar have been sealed.

On Sunday night, police sealed most fruit markets and warehouses and deflated tyres of lorries loaded with fruit.

One fruit merchant, Farooq Ahmed, told the BBC that the police had taken away about 30 lorries laden with fruit during the night.

Police are also stopping people from going on the road from Srinagar to the town of Baramullah, which leads to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

In Srinagar's Qamarwari area, police fired rubber bullets to break up a demonstration of thousands of people.

Senior separatist leaders have been placed under house arrest.

India's Home Minister Shiv Raj Patil has appealed to the fruit growers to call off their march.

He has offered to buy all the fruit from the growers and also to pay compensation to those whose fruit has perished.

Riots

The row started when the state government said it would grant 40 hectares of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board.

Muslims launched violent protests, saying the allocation of land was aimed at altering the demographic balance in the area.

The state government said the Amarnath Shrine Board needed the land to erect huts and toilets for visiting pilgrims.

But following days of protests, the government rescinded the order, leading to violent street protests by Hindu groups in Jammu.

At least 15 people - Muslims and Hindus - have been killed and hundreds wounded in clashes with police since the unrest began in June.

Worsening relations between the two communities come after years of relative calm and are worrying India's government.