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.