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Tens of thousands take part in Kashmiri independence march

Representatives of Hurriyet, the group that organized the demonstration, present a memorandum to the United Nations detailing human rights violations committed by Indian authorities and call for international intervention.

Kashmir, which is currently split between India and Pakistan, has once again played host to a massive pro-independence march. Following the events of last week, when Indian police quashed a number of demonstrations and killed some twenty Kashmiri Muslims, on Sunday tens of thousands took to the streets calling for the United Nations to intervene in the conflict and to recognize the right of Kashmiris to self-determination.

The protest was organized by the Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, of which most of the Kashmiri secessionist parties are members. Leaders of the group have delivered a memorandum to the office of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), detailing the human rights violations that Kashmir has suffered at the hands of the Indian state.

Unlike the demonstrations that took place last week, yesterday's march was entirely peaceful, and Hurriyat even agreed to call off a protest that was due to take place outside the UN office in Srinagar, the Kashmiri capital.

Resurfacing tensions
There have been three wars between India and Pakistan (in 1947, 1965 and 1999) over Kashmir, and since the 1990s there has also been a conflict between Kashmiri separatists and the Indian state. In the last two months, instability in the region has increased because the Government of Kashmir has conferred an area of land on a Hindu trust, a donation which Muslim Kashmiris for the most part regard as unacceptable. One of the protests that followed turned violent when policemen shot at demonstrators. A well-known secessionist leader was among the twenty people killed.

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